Clarinet Quintet (Mozart) Clarinet Quintet (Mozart) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Quintet in A major for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, was written in 1789 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. A clarinet quintet is a work for one clarinet and a string quartet (two violins, a viola and a cello). Although originally written for basset clarinet, in contemporary performances it is usually played on a clarinet in A or B-flat for convenience's sake. It was 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
Piano quintet scored for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. Not until the middle of the 19th century did Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 44 (1842) firmly establish music for piano and string quartet as a significant, and quintessentially Romantic, chamber music genre. By 1842, the string quartet had evolved into the most important chamber music ensemble, and advances in the design of the piano had expanded its power and dynamic range. Bringing the piano and string quartet together, Schumann's Piano Quintet took full advantage of the expressive possibilities of these forces in combination, alternating conversational passages between the