Clarinet Quintet in A Major

It’s hardly surprising that Mozart should have been particularly drawn to writing music for the clarinet. He was undoubtedly impressed by its huge range, penetrating sonorities and capacity to sustain rapid figurations, all of which made the clarinet far more flexible than other woodwind instruments. But it was its expressive and vocal qualities, manifested in the mellifluous playing of his friend Anton Stadler, that really fired his imagination. Mozart expressed his gratitude in a letter written to Stadler: “Never should I have thought that a clarinet could be capable of imitating the human voice as it was imitated by you.” The Clarinet Quintet, one of a number of major works Mozart composed especially for Stadler, dates from 1789. It fully exploits the instrument’s potential for long-breathed lyrical lines and virtuosic passage work, while at the same time ensuring that the string quartet acts an equal partner in the sharing of musical material. The leisurely and expressive clarinet theme that opens the “Allegro” first movement establishes one of the work’s predominant moods, most obviously reflected in the veiled autumnal timbres of the ensuing “Larghetto” second movement and in the slow adagio section of the finale “Allegretto con variazioni”. But there’s also plenty of opportunity for more extroverted writing, as demonstrated in the delightful third movement “Minuet” and the concluding “Allegro” of the finale.