Piano and Wind Quintet in E flat major K.452 (1784)

1 Largo – allegro moderato 2 Larghetto 3 Allegretto

Mozart’s Quintet for piano and wind is the earliest known work of its kind. Assuming there really was no precedent for it, one can only speculate on how Mozart came to invent it. Perhaps the explanation is to be found in the piano concertos he was writing in the same few weeks in March and April 1784 and his very evident interest in scoring for piano and wind in those works.

The composer-pianist’s delight in this company is evident from the melodious first solo entry of the horn and its answer on bassoon in the Largo introduction. It is true that the piano dominates the ensemble and that the oboe is the most prominent among the others: the order of precedence is declared when the piano introduces and the oboe repeats the two main themes of the Allegro moderato. On the other hand, the passage of rhythmically contradictory arpeggios and scales just before the end of the exposition is a genuine five-part inspiration. In introducing the main theme of the Larghetto the leading roles are simply reversed, oboe first and then piano, but the following exchange of comments between the four winds presents each one as a distinctively expressive individual.

The closing Allegretto rondo includes not only an episode where the melody is restricted to the winds but also a canonic cadenza featuring all five instruments. The greatest textural inspiration of all must be the two passages (one of them in the coda) of quietly sustained harmonies on the wind and broken octaves on the piano. It is no wonder that Mozart considered the Quintet the best work he had composed up to that time.

Mozart’s Quintet for piano and wind is the earliest known work of its kind. It might well be that there is an earlier example, perhaps even one that Mozart heard before writing his own, but in the absence of any evidence to that effect we are free to speculate about what, if this is a new invention, could have led him to it. Perhaps the explanation is to be found in the piano concertos he was writing in the same few weeks in March and April 1784 – in B flat major K.450, D major K.451, G major K 453 – and his very evident interest in scoring for piano and wind in those works. So why shouldn’t he indulge himself for once in a piece for piano and solo winds, excluding not only strings but also his least favourite woodwind instrument, the flute?

The composer-pianist’s delight in this select company is evident from the melodious first solo entry of the horn and its answer on bassoon in the Largo introduction. It is true that the piano dominates the ensemble and that the oboe is the most prominent among the others: the order of precedence is declared when the piano introduces and the oboe repeats the two main themes of the Allegro moderato. On the other hand, the passage of rhythmically contradictory arpeggios and scales just before the end of the exposition is a genuine five-part inspiration. In introducing the main theme of the Larghetto the leading roles are simply reversed, oboe first and then piano, but the following exchange of comments between the four winds presents each one as a distinctively expressive individual.

The closing Allegretto rondo includes not only an episode where the melody is restricted to the winds but also a canonic cadenza featuring all five instruments. The greatest textural inspiration of all must be the two passages (one of them in the coda) of quietly sustained harmonies on the wind and broken octaves on the piano. It is no wonder that Mozart considered the Quintet the best work he had composed up to that time.