1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Rondo: Allegro

The inspiration for Mozart’s famous horn concertos and the Horn Quintet was the Austrian virtuoso Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb (1732–1811). Though sometimes remembered as the victim of some of Mozart’s cruder practical jokes, Leutgeb was by all accounts a magnificent player, and had known the Mozart family ever since joining the Salzburg court orchestra in the early 1760s. When he moved back to Vienna, Leutgeb supplemented his income as a musician by running a cheese and wine shop – but he never stopped performing, and Mozart produced several major works for him to play. The Quintet is in many ways like a horn concerto in miniature. The musicologist Sarah Adams has pointed out that – given Leutgeb’s involvement – it is ‘not surprising that the horn plays a soloistic role, especially in the first movement [which] heightens the impact of the horn’s lyrical entrance by preceding it with tutti fanfares in the strings, a gesture evocative of a concerto’s preparation for the soloist’s entrance.’ This solo role is rather less apparent in the central movement of the Quintet, though it did require Leutgeb’s use of hand-stopping to obtain particular notes on the natural horn of the time (with no valves) – a technique that had attracted praise from critics all over Europe. Scored for horn, violin, two violas and cello, the Quintet was written in Vienna in 1782 – the composer’s first year in the city after his move from Salzburg.

NIGEL SIMEONE 2010