Clarinet Trio in E‑Flat Major

The Clarinet Trio was written in the summer of 1786. Although nicknamed “Kegelstatt” by Mozart’s publisher on account of the composer’s much-documented fondness for playing skittles, such an appellation has no tangible connection with the exact character of the music. More significantly, its unusual scoring, for clarinet, viola, and piano, created a work with almost autumnal colours not found in any other chamber music from the 18th century. The sequence of its three movements is also unconventional. Mozart substitutes the expected “Allegro” that normally opens such a work with a pensive “Andante” whose opening melody, with its distinctive decorative flourish, is obsessively repeated throughout the movement. The ensuing “Menuetto” is equally inventive, especially the middle-section “Trio”, where the clarinet plays a darkly coloured four-note phrase followed by fast-moving notes in the viola, with both melodic elements subsequently subjected to intensive development. In the leisurely and expansive “Rondo Finale”, the piano, which had largely taken a backseat in the earlier movements, suddenly breaks out of its accompanying role with a dizzying sequence of fast notes that you would normally encounter in one of Mozart’s piano concertos.