String Quartet Op. 17, No. 6 has a startling key scheme. It is written in D major, but the second group opens in the dominant minor. It also has urgent keening presto figures that contrast with the slower dance-like melodies. It is a most appealing first movement, one that leads us into the more sophisticated Opus 20 works, written a year later but existing a world apart in maturity. The minuet is miles above that of No. 5 in all departments: elegance, grace, and originality. There is great ease and breeziness in the writing, with a smooth transition into the recapitulation. The largo is remarkable for its stellar two-part writing between the first violin and the lower voices, the latter providing a hypnotic refrain that varies only slightly, but heightens the timbre considerably. The vitality and bold accents of the finale have endeared it to listeners and assured it an enduring place in the repertoire. Its echoes are brassily impertinent, its staccatos provide sharp punctuation, its drama is intense at times, and its coda is a real surprise, suddenly dropping to pianississimo and disappearing like a stifled sneeze.

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