Opus 16

[Joy]

Yesterday I heard the Quintet in Eb for piano and wind instruments written in 1796. A beautiful rendition by the members of the Chicago Chamber Musicians. They mentioned that Beethoven wrote this in tribute to Mozart. A very beautiful piece. A further explaination would be interesting especially about the Mozart connection. Anyone else find this piece especially beautiful?

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[spaceray]

"All his compositions from this period involved piano, and most were piano solos.Beethoven's musicial thought was intimately tied to his instruments,and the public expected virtuosity from him or works that put virtuoso playing at the forefront.In this spirit,the piano dominates the Quintet in E flat Major,op 16 throughout;in this veritable concerto ,four wind instruments take the place of an entire orchestra."
from Beethoven The Composer as Hero by Philippe A Autexier

[Rod]

You'll hear extracts from both versions of op16 on the 'Authentic music' page soon. These are great.



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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Joy:
Yesterday I heard the Quintet in Eb for piano and wind instruments written in 1796. A beautiful rendition by the members of the Chicago Chamber Musicians. They mentioned that Beethoven wrote this in tribute to Mozart. A very beautiful piece. A further explaination would be interesting especially about the Mozart connection. Anyone else find this piece especially beautiful?

Like all true music lovers, B was very conscious of Mozart's talent. Mozart's Quintet (K 452) and B's have enough uniquenesses (word?) in common that there is little doubt that B wrote Op 16 as a tribute to M. Some of these things are;
The only 2 pieces of music with this unique combination of instruments
Both in the same key (Eb)
Same number of movements
Undoubtedly others also. There are some who think of one work as superior to the other, but I feel that each expresses the unique talent of its composer perfectly well, thus they don't stand objective comparison.
Regards,
Gurn