Mozart, Beethoven: Wind Quintets

On this CD:

1. Quintet for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn & bassoon in E flat major, K. 452
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

2. Quintet for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn & bassoon in E flat major, Op. 16
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven

Tracks:

I. Largo - Allegro Moderato
II. Larghetto
III. Rondo. Allegretto
I. Grave - Allegro Ma Non Troppo
II. Andante Cantabile
III. Rondo - Allegro Ma Non Troppo

Customer Reviews:

Overrated.......2006-02-20

I had this recording for years but could never warm to it. Perahia and his companions play a fine, poetic version of a work that Mozart said was the best thing he had written to date, but are let down by an overly spacious sound picture. The winds sound like distant bystanders, and a good rather than great performance is not enough to overcome this. Perhaps Perahia's reputation has elevated the status of this recording beyond its true merit. A decent version, but not one that can eclipse the very best rivals. Try the classic version with Gieseking on Testament if you want to hear a performance that can render you unmindful of lackluster sound.

Two excellent piano and wind quintets .......2005-10-14

This is a fine performance of two similar pieces. Both are in E-flat major. Both are for the same five instruments: piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. They were written twelve years apart. One is by Mozart, from 1784. And yes, after he finished it, he wrote to his father that he felt it was the best work he had ever composed. Of course, that was before he wrote his last four symphonies and nearly half his piano concertos.

Murray Perahia (piano), Neil Black (oboe), Thea King (clarinet), Anthony Halstead (horn), and Graham Sheen (bassoon) are superb in these performances.

I was introduced to these works when four of my friends, a pianist, an oboist, and horn player, and a bassoonist were looking for a couple of pieces to play. I grabbed my clarinet and found the music. I like both of them. I especially like the closing coda and unusual cadenza in the Mozart piece, but there are fine themes throughout it.

Beethoven was still a young composer when he wrote his quintet in 1796. It was before he wrote most of the works that made him so famous: by then he had written about ten sonatas (including the Pathetique) and a couple of piano concertos. But it is a fine piece as well, and once again, I especially like the finale.

This CD is not all that long (less than 53 minutes), but the price is reasonable and the music is great. I recommend it.

The Mozart and Beethoven Piano and Wind Quintets.......2004-11-28

I was enchanted with Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452, when I heard it on a CD featuring Dennis Brain performing the Mozart horn concertos. I wanted to explore this work further and hear it together with Beethoven's Quintet opus 16. I was eager to compare at first-hand two similar compositions, one by Mozart at the height of his powers the other by Beethoven as a rising young musician in Vienna. This CD with pianist Murray Perahia and members of the English Chamber Orchestra is an admirable way to get to know these works and to develop one's ear for music.

Mozart's composed his quintet in March, 1784 when he was also writing his famous series of piano concertos. He described it as "the best work I have ever composed". The work is scored for the unusual combination of piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. The combination of piano and winds had special appeal for Mozart, as witnessed by the interplay between piano soloist and wind band in many of the piano concertos.

This three-movement quintet is highlighted by an exquisite interaction among the five instruments with none predominating over the other. It is a delight to hear every instrument play alone, in duets and trios with others, and in ensemble passages. Mozart uses the full tonal colors of each instrument and he displays them in almost every imaginable combination with each other.

The first movement opens with a majestic largo which flows into a lyrical allegro moderato with two primary themes. There are alternating chordal and scalar passages, passages for piano and the wind quartet, and passages where each instrument takes its turn. The slow movement, marked larghetto, is tranquil in character with an opening theme which dips into sadness. There is a brief, dramatic middle section featuring a horn solo before the return of the opening theme. The finale is a rondo which at the end broadens out into a cadenza in which each of the five instruments enters in turn playing contrapuntally to each other. This is one of the moments in Mozart which looks toward the final five-part fugual section in the finale of the Jupiter symphony. The work closes with a flourish and a brief return of the rondo theme.

When he came to Vienna for good in November 1792, Beeethoven hoped to make his way as a pianist as well as a composer. He also worked, as do many aspiring artist, by taking works by has masters as models and attempting to emulate and surpass them.

Beethoven tried to do so with his opus 16 quintet for piano and winds. Beethoven took Mozart's unusually scored work as a model and tried both to learn from it and also to show that he could compose in his own voice. His quintet,written in 1796, is the work of an ambitious fledgling composer while Mozart's quintet shows him at his best.

The quintet is modeled in form upon Mozart's with a slow introduction to the opening movement, a song-like middle movement, and a rondo finale. But there are major differences. At this point of his life, Beethoven composed to show off his virtuoso skills on the piano. The technology of the piano had advanced in the 12 years since Mozart's work; and Beethoven tried to take advantage of the capabilities of the instrument to display his incomparable technique. The opus 16 quintet is much more directed to the piano than is Mozart's. There are flashy runs up and down the keyboard, long trills, dramatic shifts of tempo, and heavy chords. The piano is at the forefront much of the time and, when the work was performed with Beethoven at the keyboard, he is said to have improvised long solo passages. That said, there are still fine solo passages in this quintet for each of the wind instruments.

Beethoven also put something of his own style into this early quintet. It is full of brash, flamboyant passages, changes in tempo, and sudden dynamic changes, all of which are foreign to the balance Mozart achieved in his quintet. There is an immediate, popular appeal to the younger composer's early work, while Mozart's quintet is far more subtle. Lewis Lockwood, a leadig Beethoven scholar, is critical of this quintet, finding it lacks "Mozart's perfect blend of imagination and restraint." Lockwood, Beethoven: the Music and the Life", p. 109 (2003)

The first movement consists of a long slow introduction -- marked grave -- which is not at all solemn and which leads into a dance-like opening allegro. The work moves along lyrically with some dramatic outbursts during the development section. The musical highpoint of this work is the second movement, marked andante cantabile. The movement opens with a slow theme in the piano which returns, after interludes, full of embellishment and filigree. There is an extended horn solo in one of these interludes, just as Mozart used the horn to good effect in the slow movement of his quintet. The third movement is a rolicking rondo with movements into the minor, and a loud clangorous, sudden close on the piano.

We have, then, on this CD, two works in the same form one by a master and one by a rising young composer. Both are enjoyable to hear and, on one level, it is good to avoid the temptation to play them off against each other. But one work is a great masterpiece and the other work is a good start by a composer who would go on to write many of his own masterpieces.

Poor ensemble,poor recording..........2002-03-08

There is very little to speak about this performance except that perahia is a well known artist.the recording is poor and the volume level has to be cranked way up to listen comfortably!The ensemble is poor and despite playing these works at a slower pace they do not gel!
For a knockout performance of these beautiful works i recommend the Melodya recording of these works by Eliso Virsaladze(piano),anatoli Lubimov(oboe),Vladimir Sokolov(clarinet),anatoli Demin(French horn)and Sergei Krasavin(basoon).Recorded in 1975 this is a superb performance where the entire ensemble are in peak form and take these two works with a gay abandon .There is Dramatic and sensitive piano playing(not matched by Perahia!),a piercing oboe,a gliding clarinet,a sombre horn and a bassy basoon.I have only a compact Cassette of this recording and it is better than this DDD compact Disk!Just goes to show that technology and fame are not enough to match Quality Music Making!

Chamber Music in Same Key, Same Ensembe.......2001-04-17

Unusual group consisting of piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon play two pieces, each in E-flat major and each with three movements. Some say Beethoven composed his in honor of the older, or as competitive answer.

Whatever the motive, these are two fine recordings, with the superior piano performance of Perahia enhancing.

Tracks:

Qnt in E flat, K.452: I. Largo - Allegro Moderato
Qnt in E flat, K.452: II. Larghetto
Qnt in E flat, K.452: III. Rondo. Allegretto
Qnt in E flat, Op.16: I. Grave - Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Qnt in E flat, Op.16: II. Andante Cantabile
Qnt in E flat, Op.16: III. Rondo: Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Qnt in E flat, Op.5: I. Adagio - Allegro Moderato
Qnt in E flat, Op.5: II. Adagio Cantabile
Qnt in E flat, Op.5: III. Menuetto (Allegro Molto)
Qnt in E flat, Op.5: IIII. Finale (Allegro)

Beethoven, Mozart, Quintets for Piano & Winds

Average customer rating:

Beethoven, Mozart, Quintets for Piano & Winds

Manufacturer: Erato (Warner)
ProductGroup: Classical
Binding: Audio CD

Mozart, Beethoven: Piano and Wind Quintets in E flat

Average customer rating:

A Little Too Stately
Fine! ... but I've heard better.

Mozart, Beethoven: Piano and Wind Quintets in E flat

Manufacturer: Telarc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

$7.99 and Under | Classical Music Blowout | Stores | Music

All Classical Music Blowout | Classical Music Blowout | Stores | Music

Instrumental | Classical Music Blowout | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000003CTN
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

I. Largo - Allegro Moderato
II. Larghetto
III. Rondo: Allegro Moderato
I. Grave - Allegro ma non troppo
II. Andante cantabile
III. Rondo: Allegro Ma Non Troppo

Customer Reviews:

A Little Too Stately.......2007-06-24

A good performance, affectionate and precise, sound is very good, Previn plays beautifully, but somehow the joy has been lost. Almost certainly because the performance is rather slow, the Mozart takes 12% longer than Haebler and the Bamberg Wind Quintet on Philips Duo. Disappointing, I expected a great interpretation, but I expect this Mozart to sparkle.

Fine! ... but I've heard better........2003-03-18

When I fist got this CD, I knew that this would be another fine addition to my Telarc CDs. Nice performances. Appropriate for taking it easy. Makes me think that whoever buys this would not go wrong.

But then I recently compared this to a Delos CD (by Carol Rosenberger on the Bosendorfer piano with 4 wind instrument players). I find the performances to be even better. The sound from the players are more distinctive. So if you want these Quintets by Mozart and Beethoven, then I would make the Delos CD the first choice. I don't know what would be my second choice, maybe the Telarc (or Naxos, although I MIGHT listen to that someday).

Tracks:

Quintet in E-flat for Fortepiano, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn, K. 452: Largo - Allegro moderato
Quintet in E-flat for Fortepiano, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn, K. 452: Larghetto
Quintet in E-flat for Fortepiano, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn, K. 452: Allegretto
Quintet in E-flat for Fortepiano, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon, Op. 16: Grave - Allegro, ma non troppo
Quintet in E-flat for Fortepiano, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon, Op. 16: Andante cantabile
Quintet in E-flat for Fortepiano, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon, Op. 16: Rondo: Allegro, ma non troppo

Classical Surroundings Vol. 6 - Woodwind Quintet

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Classical Surroundings Vol. 6 - Woodwind Quintet

Manufacturer: Pamplin Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Sextets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Mozart and Beethoven: Quintets for Piano & Wind Instruments

Average customer rating:

Mozart and Beethoven: Quintets for Piano & Wind Instruments
Mozart , Beethoven , and Budapest Wind Ensemble
Manufacturer: Harmonia Mundi France
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00008FMCB
Release Date: 1993-12-06

Music Track: