The Misleading Beginnings in Lodi
Mozart’s Quartet in G major (K.80), commonly known as the Quartet of Lodi, has often been celebrated as a youthful masterpiece, composed during his first Italian journey in 1770. However, the truth is more complicated. Initiated during a gruelling journey from Milan to Parma, this composition bears the heavy hand of his father, Leopold. The manuscript, with its unusual note of location and time—“à Lodi. 1770. le 15 Mars alle 7 di sera”—suggests a need to immortalise the moment, perhaps pushed by paternal influence.

Although the idea of a 14-year-old composing unprompted sounds impressive, one must question the circumstances. Could it be that Leopold, as in so many instances, was guiding the process behind the scenes? This would not be the first or last time the elder Mozart intervened in his son’s work.

Leopold’s Heavy Hand
The autograph of the quartet, while bearing Wolfgang’s name, reveals substantial input from Leopold. The Adagio, Allegro, and Minuet movements—initially conceived as a uniform trio—were meticulously corrected by Leopold. The Minuet’s trio, in particular, was significantly altered, with Leopold lowering the violin parts by an octave, a decision that shapes the version we know today. Scholars also suggest that the Rondo Contraddanza finale, written on a different paper, may have been added years later in Salzburg.

The quartet’s final form, though attributed to Wolfgang, clearly showcases Leopold’s ‘musical experience’ in revising and polishing his son’s rough sketches. How much of the piece can truly be credited to Wolfgang remains an open question.

Influences and Comparisons
Mozart’s Quartet of Lodi suffers not only from an overreliance on his father’s corrections but also from an obvious debt to the Italian quartets of the time. Musicologists such as Fausto Torrefranca have noted the quartet’s stylistic backwardness compared to the works of contemporaries like Boccherini, Giordani, and Pugnani. In particular, the Lodi Quartet lacks the dynamic interplay and formal sophistication seen in the Italian string quartets emerging in Paris and London.

Torrefranca has further argued that the Italian quartet form itself evolved from the concerto, with Boccherini being a major influence. The Lodi Quartet, by comparison, pales in complexity and innovation. The dominance of the violin over the other instruments, while a hallmark of Boccherini’s quartets, is handled poorly in Mozart’s work, where technical gaps and underdeveloped ideas persist.

A Technically Flawed Composition
Perhaps the most glaring evidence of Mozart’s immaturity in this quartet comes in the final Rondo movement. In measure 7, the trills in the cello part create unsightly parallel fifths with the first violin and consecutive sevenths with the viola. The modern interpreter is often forced to correct these blatant errors, abbreviating the trills or performing them more cautiously to avoid disrupting the harmonic structure. This technical oversight reveals how far Wolfgang had yet to go before mastering the form.