Because of his extensive experience in composing concertos for piano, most of us might assume that Mozart participated in performances of this unusually scored work by playing the piano. However, it is the viola part that the composer wrote for himself for times when friends came over to his home to play chamber music.
Anton Stadler, the master clarinetist for whom Mozart would also compose his Clarinet Quintet, K. 581 often joined the composer playing the viola part, and Mozart’s student, Franziska Jacquin, played the piano.
The lyrical quality of the comparatively new wind instrument had charmed Mozart sufficiently that many of the works from that period now included clarinet parts. The viola was favored by the composer in many works, including the series of string quintets in which a second viola part augmented the standard string quartet.
There are many distinctive aspects to this music, including its leisurely opening tempo and absence of a sonata form repeat in the first movement. The following minuet is folksy and not so elegant as many such movements by Mozart. The final movement has a returning theme, but there are more variations than usual between the recurrences of the rondo, so it is labeled in the plural, Rondeaux.
Here is Clarinetist Martin Froest who will show us how wonderful this work really is:
