Rediscovering discovery

Huw Williams | 19:23, Friday 01 March 2013 | Turin, Italy

Our 'retreat week' last week didn't quite go according to plan; Alison discovered that her driving license needed to be renewed and… well, let's just say it took longer to sort out than we were expecting. But nonetheless we did manage to get some "down time" in.

It was during one such period of said "down time", that I endured a traumatic moment – when I concluded that I had found a piece of Mozart that I didn't like. Chamber music connoisseurs will be horrified to know that the piece in question was none other than the String Quartet in A major, K464. Given I had a bit of time to explore this anomaly, I did something I haven't done in nearly two years, and settled down with a score and started to study. It was a delight to think deeply about music again, sheer joy to get corners of my brain left fallow for far too long working after such a long time. Suddenly the memories came flooding back, of undergraduate late library nights, filling margins and pocket notebooks with annotations and scribbles, ideas good and not so good.

Needless to say, at the end of my analysis my conclusions about this piece were rather different, and I think this quartet now ranks among my favourite pieces Mozart wrote. Now I could trace a perfect balance of structural poise and dangerous chromaticism, quite extraordinary for its time – and indeed for any time. The piece hadn't changed, and neither had I – at least I don't think so. Neither is it the case that analysis is necessary to appreciate the wonders of the music. The problem was that previously I hadn't been listening properly – I couldn't listen for hearing.

But I was glad of the little diversion my ignorance led me on. It was good to be reminded of the delight of discovery, the thrill of the quest for meaning on the printed page.