Quintet for Piano and Winds (Mozart)

The Quintet for Piano and Winds in E♭ major, K. 452, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who entered it in his catalogue of works on 30 March 1784. It was premiered two days later at the Imperial Royal Court Theatre in Vienna. Shortly after the premiere, Mozart wrote to his father that "I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life." It is scored for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Sarah Adams notes that "The four dissimilar wind timbres pitted against the piano in this extraordinary work must have posed Mozart with a compositional challenge. He contended with the instrumental balance by constructing themes easily divisible into small motifs and by changing textural groupings every few bars for a kaleidoscopic array of tone colours."