Chamber Music Matinee 4

The flautist, composer and teacher Anton Reicha came from Prague, was born in the same year as Beethoven and played alongside him in the Electoral Court Orchestra in Bonn. He remained friends with Beethoven, attended lectures on Greek literature with him in Bonn and even came to Vienna to study in 1802. After this he moved on to Paris, where he became one of the most respected musical personalities of the time and he was eventually laid to rest in Père Lachaise cemetery. Chamber music for solo wind instrument and accompanying strings was in vogue at the time and Reicha’s compositions for wind instruments have since enjoyed particular fame. Mozart was also at the forefront of this trend, writing four flute quartets, an oboe quartet, a horn quintet and a clarinet quintet. The flute quartets, probably written around 1777, are entirely in the gallant Mannheim style. The horn quintet, composed during Mozart’s first months in Vienna, strikes a more serious note, partly due to the instrumentation, which calls for two violas in addition to the violin and cello, making for a slightly darker sound. In contrast, the brighter horn sound stands out all the more to its advantage.