While in Berlin in 1796, Beethoven composed (or at least began) his Quintet in E♭ for piano and woodwinds (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn). It was probably modeled after a Mozart Quintet that Beethoven had recently heard with the same instrumentation and in the same key.
Beethoven’s Woodwind Quintet was published five years later as Opus 16. It has a traditional three-movement fast-slow-fast structure, but the first movement has a stately Grave introduction. The contemplative second movement Andante Cantabile is particularly appealing.
#Beethoven250 Day 79
Quintet in E♭ for Piano and Woodwinds (Opus 16), 1796
A performance of the Woodwind Quintet by the Michigan Chamber Players.
Many Beethoven scholars tend to dismiss the Opus 16 Woodwind Quintet as “a piece designed for popularity” (Lewis Lockwood), but in his book Beethoven, William Kinderman devotes seven pages to an extensive appreciation of the work:
Eyewitness reports of Beethoven’s improvisations stress his capacity for developing much from little, seeing a world in a grain of sand by making a seemingly accidental scrap of musical material into the springboard for an imaginative musical discourse — William Kinderman
In The Classical Style, Charles Rosen says Opus 16 is “classicizing” in imitating classical forms:
“Classicizing” works have a beauty that is often unappreciated; these early pieces of Beethoven have an easy freshness and serenity that redeem their awkward lack of unity.