Composed 1789; 31 minutes 

Mozart fell in love with the clarinet after first hearing it in London at the age of eight. Each of the four movements of his Clarinet Quintet showcases his gift for drawing out the instrument’s varied colors in dialogue with the strings. He composed the work for Anton Stadler, whom he met in 1781, soon after relocating from Salzburg to Vienna. Stadler, one of two brothers who were then the city’s foremost wind players, was a pioneer at a time that the clarinet was still a novelty in the orchestra and rarely featured as a solo voice. Mozart and Stadler became close friends and fellow Freemasons. Despite his own financial struggles, Mozart often lent money to Stadler, affectionately teasing him with playful nicknames such as ‘Stodla’, or ‘Nàtschibinìtschibi’ (roughly, ‘poor miserable fellow of stupidities’), and ‘Ribisel-Gesicht’ (“red-currant face”).

Stadler’s artistry inspired not only this Quintet—among the most sublime works in the repertoire—but also Mozart’s Clarinet Trio (the ‘Kegelstatt’ Trio, K. 498) and, a year later, the serene, melancholy Clarinet Concerto. In the Quintet’s first movement, the clarinet emerges as a first among equals, guiding and sharing poignant lines with the strings in music that is limpid and lyrical. In the slow movement, Mozart achieves an exquisite fusion of timbres. The clarinet’s warm, romantic chalumeau register floats above muted strings, creating an atmosphere of introspective calm.

The third movement—a minuet—grounds us again, and its inclusion makes the Clarinet Quintet unique among Mozart’s chamber works for wind and strings in having four movements. One of the most arresting moments is the first trio, where the strings, alone and in the minor key, conjure a mood of gentle unease. The second trio—an unusual feature in Mozart’s chamber writing—offers a rustic duet between clarinet and first violin. For the finale, Mozart abandoned his initial sketches and instead composed a set of five variations and a coda on one of his disarmingly simple themes. Beneath its bright surface, the movement carries a trace of melancholy. It has often been said that this music “smiles through its tears.”