Clarinet Quintet (Mozart)

Clarinet Quintet
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Score with historical basset clarinet
Key	A major
Catalogue	K. 581
Dedication	Anton Stadler
Duration	35 minutes
Movements	Allegro Larghetto Menuetto – Trio I – Trio II Allegretto con variazioni
Scoring	(Basset) clarinet in A violin I violin II viola cello
Premiere
Date	December 22, 1789
Location	Tonkünstler-Societät in Vienna
Performers	Anton Stadler (clarinet) Joseph Zistler (violin) Mozart (viola) others unknown

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, K. 581, was written in 1789 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. A clarinet quintet is a work for one clarinet and a string quartet. Although originally written for basset clarinet,^[1] in contemporary performances it usually is played on a clarinet in A. It is Mozart's only completed clarinet quintet and is one of the earliest and best-known works, written especially for the instrument. It remains to this day one of the most admired of the composer's works. Sometimes the quintet is referred to as the Stadler Quintet; Mozart so described it in a letter of April 1790.^[2] Mozart also wrote a trio for clarinet, viola, and piano for Stadler, the so-called Kegelstatt Trio, in 1786. Stadler was a friend to Mozart who was very talented in the instrument.