Clarinet Quintets

"this performance flows along both naturally and gracefully"
- Gramophone

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- BBC Music Magazine

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- Denver Post (USA)

The A major Clarinet Quintet was completed in Vienna on 29th September 1789, a time du ring which Mozart was busy with the composition of the opera Cosi fan tutte. The autograph of the Quintet is lost and it was first published by Johann André in 1802 as Oeuvre 108 in the now familiar version for clarinet. It was first performed by Stadler at a concert on 22nd December 1789. The wind instrument as always adds a particular poignancy, a touch of melancholy, particularly evident in the slow movement. The Minuet has a first A minor Trio without the clarinet and a second in which it again has a more prominent part to play. In the last movement the third variation is in the tonic minor key, with attention now given to the viola, its mood quickly dispelled by the clarinet in the fourth variation, which is linked by an Adagio to the re-appearance of the theme, in a now elaborated texture.