Mozart: Piano Trio No. 5 in C Major, K. 548 Mozart: String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421When trying to understand a composer’s music, we often turn to his or her life to learn more about what biographical events might have influenced a particular work or period. Sometimes, though, what we know about a composer’s life and what we hear in a piece seem to be diametrically opposed. Mozart’s Trio in C Major was written in 1788, at a time when Mozart’s wife was battling a serious illness and just a year after his father’s death. Already under financial pressure, Mozart quickly wrote three piano trios in order to secure funds. The C Major trio is short but sophisticated, with a lighthearted spirit that belies the financial and psychological duress that Mozart was under at the time. In contrast, his String Quartet in D minor, written five years earlier when Mozart was recently married and enjoying great popularity and success in Vienna, opens with a melody that is deeply haunting and unsettled. And while Mozart does introduce sunnier themes, he always returns to a dark and brooding atmosphere.