1. Grave - Allegro ma non troppo
2. Andante cantabile
3. Rondo. Allegro, ma non troppo
Beethoven’s only piano-and-wind Quintet (1796) is often said to have been modeled on Mozart’s Quintet, K. 452, which is scored for the same ensemble (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn, plus piano), but there are as many differences as similarities between the two scores.
“The majority of Beethoven’s early works show a nervous abruptness which is
as different from the humor of Haydn. In the quintet, Beethoven is, indeed, obviously setting himself in rivalry with Mozart’s quintet for the same combination; but if you want to realize the difference between the highest art of Classical composition andthe easygoing, safety-first product of a silver age, you cannot
find a better illustration than these two works. The quintet, in other words, stands at the threshold of Beethoven’s titanic accomplishment of wrenching music from the tidy and precisely circumscribed arena in which it existed during the late eighteenth century into the unbounded, cathartic realm of the romantic age.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 -1791)
Quintet K452 for piano and wind instruments [1784]
1. Largo - Allegro moderato
2. Larghetto
3. Allegretto
The Quintet in E flat major for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, K452, dated 30 March 1784 by the composer, was given its first performance on 1 April at the Burgtheater with Mozart himself at the piano. Some days later he wrote to his father about this benefit concert, commenting on the beauty of the performance and saying he considered the Quintet the best work he had produced.
K452 is in fact Mozart’s only quintet with piano, and the combination of instruments used is itself unusual. Single wind, as opposed to pairs, pose problems of blend so he explores the numerous different permutations of instruments to produce different sonorities, and uses short phrases and motifs for variety. No instrument is given preferential treatment and, despite occasional concertante-type passages, the basic chamber-music character is maintained.
