Andante K.616 (1791)

The wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon) has been a regular ensemble for as long as 200 years – thanks not least to the pioneering industry of Anton Reicha and Franz Danzi who between them produced more than 30 exemplary scores in the second and third decades of the 19th century. Even so it has not acquired a repertoire as large and as varied as its exponents would like and, in consequence, most wind-quartet concerts include arrangements of one kind or another. Mozart’s Andante in F K.616 for mechanical organ is a natural for treatment in this way. “Too high-pitched and childish” to Mozart’s ear in its original form, it might well have been more to his taste in a wind version. Certainly, the ensemble is well equipped to make the most of the melodic beauty of a work written reluctantly – and, from out point of view, poignantly – only seven months before the composer’s death.