Anton Stadler was a clarinet and basset horn (a lower pitched clarinet) player who was just three years older than Mozart.  The two became friends in the early 1780s soon after Mozart moved to Vienna.  Stadler was one of the musicians in a performance of Mozart’s Serenade, K 375 when they first met.  Mozart was impressed with his playing, particularly his tone in the lower register of the instrument.  In the following years they often appeared together in benefit concerts and other notable performances.  In the years following the mid-1780s, every composition for clarinet including the Kegelstatt Trio, the Clarinet Quintet, the obbligato parts in two arias from La Clemenza di Tito, and the Clarinet Concerto were all written for Stadler.  

The Clarinet Quintet was composed in the fall of 1789, two years before Mozart’s early death.   It is revered as one of Mozart’s more popular and often recognized works, primarily due to its prominent role in the final episode of the TV series “M*A*S*H,” one of the most watched programs in TV history.  The well-known first movement begins quite stately for the first seven measures before the virtuosic clarinet flourishes take over.  The slow second movement shows Mozart’s elegance and beauty as he combines the clarinet and first violin in a wonderful back-and-forth.  The third movement is the expected minuet and trios.  The clarinet takes a rest through the minuet and first trio, allowing the string quartet to shine.  The second trio is a bit risqué and shows Mozart’s playful side of his personality.  The final movement is a set of six variations on the opening theme.  The viola has a beautiful melody in the third variation, a melody that Mozart wrote for himself to perform at the quintet’s premiere.