In the Quintet for Piano and Winds, KV452, Mozart created his melodic lines in short phrases, facilitating their playing by the wind instruments, and then assigned the phrases to continuously changing instrumental combinations to vary the tone color.
He achieved a balanced contrast in sonorities, and he found further contrasts among the winds. And while he left no doubt that the piano was the featured instrument, he also explored the technical and tonal resources of each wind and gave each player moments of prominence with material conceived specially for his instrument.
The first movement begins with a long introduction in which the composer demonstrated the range of tonal resources that he had available from his five instruments. The main section of the movement is marked by the inventive blending of the wind instruments in groups of two, three and four, balanced by solo passages for the piano. The development is only 16 measures long and is based entirely on the first two measures of the first theme, but Mozart achieves surprising impact by leading this brief material through a number of key changes.
The dialog between the piano and the winds continues into the lyrical slow movement, but the second theme provides greater opportunity for the individual wind instruments. A contrasting middle section is more dramatic, and the movement reaches its high point with an abrupt change to the minor mode and agitated piano phrases against soft chords in the winds.
The third movement is a rondo, with a repeated high-spirited refrain separated by contrasting episodes. About two-thirds of the way through, just as we are expecting a return to the refrain, Mozart introduces a cadenza a tempo in which all five instruments seem to improvise together at some length.
Eventually an oboe trill signals the cadenza’s end, the refrain at last reappears, and the quintet concludes with a rollicking, opera buffa coda.
Here is the Quintet for Winds KV 452 by Mozart:
