Piano & Wind Quintet in E‑Flat Major

The origins of Mozart’s Piano and Wind Quintet are shrouded in mystery. We know that the Quintet was completed at the end of March 1784, and that its first performance took place a few days later with the composer performing the piano part. But the exact reasons for Mozart writing a work for what at that time was an almost unprecedented combination of instruments (piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn) remain unclear. Perhaps a clue lies in the many piano concertos that he composed during this period, several of which contain episodes in which wind instruments engage in creative dialogue with the pianist. Of course, sustaining such interaction over an entire work is a completely different matter. Indeed, it is possible that Mozart composed the Quintet as a challenge to himself to try and solve the considerable technical problems of blending the very distinctive woodwind timbres with a brilliant virtuosic piano part. Whatever the case, the Quintet is vintage Mozart, fully justifying the comment he made to his father at the time, that it was the best thing he had ever written. The work opens in the grandest possible manner with a slow and spacious introduction that leads directly into a vivacious “Allegro”. The operatic provenance of much of Mozart’s writing really comes to the fore in the ensuing two movements, a lyrical and songful “Larghetto” and a “Rondo Finale” notable for its high spirits and flashes of humour.