Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 493

• Mozart completed this piece on June 3, 1786,¹ and it was published in Vienna the following year.²
• Mozart had originally agreed to publish a series piano quartets with Viennese publisher F.A. Hoffmeister. However, when the first one was released (K. 478, in g minor) in December of 1785, the publisher complained that the public didn’t like it and wouldn’t buy it. Mozart did not write any more piano quartets for Hoffmeister. He published this one (K. 493) through a different publisher, Artaria.³
• Unlike most of his earlier works, Mozart composed these piano quartets specifically for publication, rather than for an upcoming performance opportunity. Considering that, it is rather a pity that his publishing experience was negative, thus depriving us of other projected Mozart piano quartets.⁴

“…written with that fire of the imagination and that correctness which has won for Herr M. the reputation of one of the best composers in Germany.”

A music critic for the Musikalische Korrespondenz der Teutschen Filarmonischen Gesellschaft, on this quartet, Nov. 30, 1791⁵

1. Cliff Eisen and Stanley Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 15, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278233.
2. “Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, K. 493 (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus),” IMSLP, accessed October 15, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Quartet_in_E-flat_major%2C_K.493_(Mozart%2C_Wolfgang_Amadeus). 
3. Ernst Herttrich, preface to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Klavierquartette KV 478 und 493 (Munich: G. Henle, 1997), iii.
4. Eisen and Stanley Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online
5. Quoted in Robert Wigmore, “Piano Quartet in G minor, K478,” Hyperion (2003), accessed October 15, 2021, https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W4530_67373.