Largo – Allegro moderato

Larghetto

Allegretto

In a letter to his father on 10 April 1784, Mozart described his new Quintet for Piano and Wind as ‘the best piece I have ever written’. However, the Quintet is not only a magnificent work but a most unusual one: the scoring for piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn which later inspired Beethoven to produce his quintet for the same combination of instruments was extremely unconventional for the 1780s, but is perhaps explained by the circumstances for which the piece was written. Completed on 30 March 1784 and given its première just two days later on 1 April, the programme was a ‘grand musical concert’ by ‘Herr Kapellmeister Mozart’ for the benefit of the National Court Theatre in Vienna (one of three Mozart concerts given in close succession). The extraordinary programme consisted of two Mozart Symphonies (almost certainly the ‘Haffner’ and the ‘Linz’), an ‘entirely new concerto’ played by Mozart on the fortepiano (either K450 or K451, both recently finished), a solo improvisation on the piano by Mozart, three opera arias (the only music on the programme not by Mozart himself), and the first performance of an ‘entirely new grand quintet’. It was probably the presence of wind players for the symphonies that prompted Mozart to write one of his most original chamber works for the same occasion.

In terms of form, this is an equally original work – drawing on elements of the symphony, solo sonata and concerto. While the first movement is designed on almost symphonic dimensions (complete with substantial slow introduction), it has a gentler sensibility and often uses textures that recall the kind of dialogue between piano and wind instruments that are such a feature of Mozart’s mature piano concertos. After a slow movement that makes the most of the song-like expressive range of wind instruments, the finale uses the form of the sonata rondo – in essence a theme that returns repeatedly within a developing context – that was also much favoured in the piano concertos. The result is a work of immense originality – in terms of how it is put together and the daring with which Mozart uses unusual instrumental sonorities to present his rich and memorable melodic ideas.

Nigel Simeone © 2010