NDR Kammerkonzert

Joy of playing and friendly tone

Music for an ensemble of wind instruments, so-called »harmony music«, was popular and widespread during the Viennese Classical period. Mozart, for example, wrote his quintet for himself as a pianist and an ensemble of wind virtuosos, with whom he also worked at the Vienna Court Opera. In a famous letter to his father in 1784, he particularly emphasized this work, »which received extraordinary acclaim ... I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life.« Here, for the first time, he had achieved a balanced synthesis between chamber music and concertante style, which was to characterize a number of other chamber works thereafter – highlights of his creative output during his years in Vienna. Twelve years lay between Mozart’s wind quintet with piano and Beethoven’s piece with the same instrumentation. It shares the relaxed, playful and friendly tone of its predecessor on many levels.