Culturally Inspired

Mozart was only seventeen years old when he composed his first string quintet, the Quintet in B-flat major. Composed shortly after returning home to Salzburg after a failed trip to secure a position in Italy, the work may have become eclipsed by his quintets to follow, but Mozart was clearly pleased with it and enjoyed playing one of the viola parts with his friends. Mozart’s later Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds is a near perfect embodiment of chamber music itself. After its 1784 premiere, Mozart wrote to his father, “I consider it the best work I have ever written” and went on to note that it, “received the most remarkable applause.”