Mozart - Quintet in E-flat major, K. 452 (1784)

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 - 5 December 1791) was one of the most influential, popular and prolific composers of the classical period. A child prodigy, from an early age he began composing over 600 works, including some of the most famous pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music.
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Uploaded with special permission by Producer/Editor Peter Watchorn
www.musicaomnia.org
Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, K. 452
1. Largo - Allegro moderato (0:00 - 2:14)
2. Larghetto (10:10)
3. Allegretto (18:05)
Cambini Winds
Owen Watkins, clarinet
Geoffrey Burgess, oboe
Marc Vallon, bassoon
Todd Williams, horn
Penelope Crawford, fortepiano
“The best thing I have ever written… how I wish you could have heard it,
and how beautifully it was performed! The audience was enthusiastic.”
(Wolfgang Mozart to his father, April, 1784)
In 1784 Mozart created a unique musical genre: the quintet for piano and winds. Even though he never wrote for this combination again, his sole example inspired a number of works for the same instruments from other composers throughout the nineteenth century to the present. K. 452 dates from a time when Mozart took a lively interest in wind music. Three years earlier he had composed the Quartet for Oboe and Strings, K. 370 and the famous Gran Partita for thirteen winds. Idomeneo, his first major
operatic success, is replete with remarkable wind writing, conceived for members of the famous Mannheim Orchestra. In 1784 he also composed six of his mature piano concerti, which like the quintet take advantage of the fine woodwind players Mozart encountered in Vienna.
He likely finished the composition just two days before its première at a benefit concert on April 1st, but drafts from the previous year show that it was in gestation for some time. Despite being Mozart’s first essay in chamber music involving piano - and indeed the first such work ever heard in Vienna - everything is held in perfect balance. Not only is the writing for each instrument idiomatic, but the lyricism that pours
effortlessly from each instrument is expertly displayed within classical sonata form. Never does any instrument dominate the others by taking more than its fair share of the musical discourse. Mozart was proud of his skill in maintaining the music’s progress while meeting each instrument’s technical demands and capabilities.
In a letter to his father written shortly after the première, Wolfgang proudly asserted that it was his best composition and that the inaugural performance showed it in a very favorable light. While it is clear that Mozart played the piano part himself, we do not know who the other musicians were. His close friend, the famous clarinetist, Anton Stadler may have assembled a group of players from the Imperial Harmonie. This group, established just two years prior, had done much to popularize the genre of woodwind entertainment music in Vienna. Regardless of the precise identities of Mozart’s woodwind colleagues, they must surely have been leading players, capable of mastering the intricacies of Mozart’s writing with little to no rehearsal. Although today the work is recognized by connoisseurs as a gem, performers on modern instruments face numerous difficulties of balance between the descendants of the instruments for which Mozart composed. Even in Mozart’s day, there may have been relatively few performers who could realize an ideal ensemble balance.

Пікірлер: 31

@Rockingbart 2 жыл бұрын

Very good performance! Those original instruments and manuscript score makes it as close as we can get to Mozart.

@authenticmusic4815 2 жыл бұрын

Mozart's music is too beautiful, literally.

@peterwatchorn411 2 жыл бұрын

Some information on this recording by the producer and founder of the CD label, Musica Omnia: this recording of the Beethoven and Mozart Quintets for fortepiano and winds was made in First Presbyterian Church, Ypsilanti, MI 23 - 26 October, 2011. It features the (USA) Cambini Winds ensemble (Owen Watkins, clarinet; Geoffrey Burgess, oboe; Marc Vallon, bassoon and Todd Williams, horn. The fortepianist is the great American musician, Penelope Crawford, who plays a replica of a 1790 fortepiano by Anton Walter (same model of instrument that Mozart owned, and which is preserved in the Mozarthaus, Salzburg). All the wind instruments are replicas of original wind instruments from the classical period. The horn is a natural horn, with no valves. Beethoven's quintet dates from 1796, four years after he moved to Vienna to study with Haydn. Mozart's quintet, which provided the direct model for Beethoven's, dates from 1784 and was described by Mozart, in a letter to his father as "the best work I have ever composed". I decided to produce this project because I had known the Mozart work my whole life and this was an opportunity to produce the ultimate recording of it and its sister-work by Beethoven, with the best classical wind ensemble in the United States, specializing in playing instruments of the period and teaming them up with one of our greatest fortepianists, Penelope Crawford, who is based in Michigan. We had the advantage of access to a church in Ypsilanti, Michigan with exactly the right kind of ambience to bring the music to life. You can hear in this recording a blend and balance between all the instruments that cannot be achieved with their modern counterparts, no matter how expertly played. The wind instruments have an almost human vocal quality, while the fortepiano is rich and incisive, blending well with the winds, but never dominating, as even the finest modern piano tends to do. Penelope Crawford, who is a fellow board member of Musica Omnia, has also served as session producer for all of my own solo Bach recordings for Musica Omnia (many of which are being made available here, complete with facsimile scores). So, we have a long-standing musical partnership which has created this unique classical CD label in the USA. Musica Omnia was founded precisely to document the work of great musicians from around the world, especially those with an interest in authentic sounds from different periods in music. Among our other artists are Jaap Schroeder, Enid Sutherland and the Atlantis Ensemble; Max van Egmond; the Boston Bach Ensemble, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street (NYC); the Adaskin String Trio (Canada); Sally Pinkas (piano), Saskia Coolen (recorder), Magnificat Ensemble (San Francisco), David Yearsley, Brett Leighton (organ); David Schrader, Martin Davids (Callipygian Players) and many others. Penelope Crawford has participated in the following recordings for Musica Omnia, both chamber and solo: Schubert: Piano Trios op. 99 & op. 100, Trout Quintet (Atlantis Ensemble); Die schoene Muellerin, Winterreise, Die Forelle (Max van Egmond); Mendelssohn: Piano Trios in D minor & C minor, Piano Quartets, Piano Sextet; sonatas for violin,, viola, clarinet (Atlantis Ensemble); Fanny Mendelssohn: Trio in D minor; Schumann: Piano Quintet, Piano Quartet, Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor (Atlantis Ensemble); Kinderszenen, op. 15; Abegg Variations, op. 1; Papillons, op. 2; Arabesque, op. 18; Waldszenen, op. 82. Clara Schumann: Trio in G minor, op 16; Sigismond Thalberg: Trio in A major (Atlantis Ensemble). Beethoven: Quintet for fortepiano & winds, op. 16; Trios in C minor op. 1, no. 3 & D major (Atlantis Ensemble); Piano sonatas opp. 78, 80a, 90, 101, 109, 110, 111; Mozart: Quintet for fortepiano & winds, K. 452; Sonatas/Fantasias K. 284, 475, 457, 511. Sonatas for 2 fortepianos (with Nancy Garrett/Duo Cristofori): K. 448, Fugue in C minor, K. 446. She plays two specific fortepianos: a copy of a 1795 Walter by Paul McNulty and an original fortepiano by the great Viennese builder, Conrad Graf, from 1835. Peter Watchorn, co-founder & producer, Musica Omnia, Inc.

@fredericchopin4821 2 жыл бұрын

One of my favorite chamber works by Mozart. The lightness and butteriness of the period instruments makes it even more magnificent!

@hiera1917 2 жыл бұрын

I tell you, ‘buttery’ was never the word I’d have ascribed to period instruments, but I completely agree! Smoothness and depth that is unmatched by any instruments today, and in the case of wind instruments especially, a very obvious warmth

@peterwatchorn411 2 жыл бұрын

@@hiera1917 I would use the term: "vocal". Classical wind instruments (like the Baroque instruments that preceded them) were designed to resemble the human voice, a characteristic that was gradually eroded in the second half of the 19th century as the instruments were made louder and plainer in sound (designed to fill ever-expanding public concert halls). This was neither good nor bad; simply those instruments were designed for a different purpose. Beethoven, like Mozart wrote carefully and idiomatically for the instruments with which he was familiar. Therefore, his works achieve maximum effect when we use those resources (especially when we have real specialist virtuosos to play them, as here) PW, producer of this recording..

@tobih.3758 2 жыл бұрын

0:57 this Part is so beatiful! But the whole piece is beautiful.

@notaire2 2 жыл бұрын

Wunderschöne Interpretation dieses einzigartig konstruierten und fein komponierten Quintetts in verschiedenen Tempi mit klarem Klang des genialen Fortepianos und milden Tönen vierer ebenso genialen Blasinstrumente. Der zweite Satz klingt echt schön und auch beruhigend. Die intime und perfekt entsprechende Miteinanderwirkung zwischen den fünf Virtuosen ist wahrhaft bewundernswert. Einfach angenehm!

@marcocampus7943 2 жыл бұрын

A true masterpiece of chamber music. Mozart himself, after the premiere of this work, told his father that it was one of the best things he had ever written.

@camilorojas1744 2 жыл бұрын

Love this performance. I had so much fun playing this piece back in my time

@matthewwhitehouse301 Жыл бұрын

That horn solo in the opening Largo is absolutely unworldly

@Sshooter444 2 жыл бұрын

Balance is much easier with the period instruments. The fortepiano does not overpower, great performance!

@obladioblada6932 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Mozart (and the channel), for this!

@atsunnyside2158 2 жыл бұрын

Splendid! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

@auvillars 2 жыл бұрын

one of my favorite !! thank you

@user-yn6on5rm7g 2 жыл бұрын

thank you, Bartje Bartmans!

@gerardoguzman3061 2 жыл бұрын

Excelente version!!!!

@SilvioNobre 2 жыл бұрын

Superb performance! Amazing!

@davemiller7633 2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful upload

@juliend6223 2 жыл бұрын

Wow. What a performance ! 👍

@albin8053 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot!

@barney6888 2 жыл бұрын

as only Mozart can do

@Nothing_to_see_here_27. 2 жыл бұрын

Sublime.

@christopherkeller7734 2 жыл бұрын

I read in Jan Swafford's book that Mozart wrote in a letter he believed this to be his greatest work to date.... of course this was only 1784... before Figaro, before the D minor concerto...etc...etc...

@liminalsp4ces454 2 жыл бұрын

YES, THANKS FOR PLAYING IT WITH A PIANOFORTE, YES

@wilhelmorangenbaum2 Жыл бұрын

I love the sound of the period winds here, not something I can said about the sound of the fortepiano, surely the instrument that most benefit itself from its development.

@lorenzocassani8169 Жыл бұрын

Mozart music sound better on fortepianos rather than on modern grand pianofortes

@wilhelmorangenbaum2 Жыл бұрын

@@lorenzocassani8169 can't really agree with you, classical-era music benefits by being played on fortepianos just because of the technique you require, for example Hummel's piano concertos are on the verge of not being able to be played on the modern piano because fortepiano's light mechanism allowed more quick passages than are more difficult on the pianoforte's heavy action. I need to clarify that the fortepiano on this recording is not the best fortepiano I have heard so it's not like I don't like hear a good historical instrument from time to time, but I'm still not on the camp of "is good just because is the instrument in which was composed".