Serenade in E flat major K375 (1781–82)

Mozart’s Serenade in E flat major was originally scored, like Weber’s Adagio and Rondo, for the latest form of the wind sextet: two each of clarinets, horns and bassoons, the clarinets replacing the oboes of the traditional wind ensemble favoured by Haydn’s generation. The oboe parts were added only after the first performance when, it seems, the composer realised that, following the formation of Joseph II’s wind band, the octet was the better bet.

Given that the oboes were an afterthought and that the occasion it was written for was a domestic celebration, the octet version of the Serenade in E flat is neither as unquestionably perfect in its scoring nor as serious in content as the Serenade in C minor. It is, however, a masterpiece of its kind. In the intriguing harmonic diversity of the first movement – which needs the recurrences of its opening bars to keep it in touch with E flat major reality as it ventures into B flat minor or C minor – it is scarcely noticeable that the melodic initiative comes from the clarinets or horns but never the oboes. Oboe colouring is always an asset, of course, as in the acerbic seconds they project into the texture soon after the beginning and in their bravura exchanges with the bassoons.

If the oboes contribute little, harmonically and melodically, to the first Menuetto, their presence is certainly required in the Adagio, where they zre most successfully integrated, the first oboe taking a particularly eloquent role in sharing the introduction of the expressive opening theme. Paradoxically, the second Menuetto is more colourful in the sextet version: it makes a special feature of the two clarinets in a second trio which Mozart evidently felt he could not translate into octet terms. The exhilaratingly brisk rondo finale is, essentially, another clarinet piece – except in the most interesting episode of all, where the oboes lead the ensemble into a briefly sustained fugue in C minor.