Serenade for Wind Octet in E flat K.375

It
surprises me that a man as flawed as I am, both mentally and morally,
can still take such a delight in Mozart, who lacks the depth and
force of Beethoven, the warmth and passion of Schumann, the
brilliance of Meyerbeer and Berlioz. Mozart does not overwhelm me,
nor take my breath away, but he does enslave me, makes me feel good,
fills me with warmth. When I listen to his music, it makes me feel
virtuous. The older I grow, and the better I get to know him, the
more I love him.

Probably
everyone attending today’s concert can sympathise with some of
Tchaikovsky’s sentiments while taking issue with his other
assertions. Mozart’s Wind Serenades definitely have a high feel-good
factor; it is hard to listen to this sensually extravagant music
without some manifestation of pure delight. Even Mozart was delighted
by it – some inspired friend of the composer hired six wind players
to serenade Mozart with his own work on his birthday.

At
night, at 11 o’clock, I was treated to a serenade of 2 clarinets, 2
horns and 2 bassoons, which as it so happens was my own composition.
I had composed it for St Theresia’s Day, for the sister-in-law of the
court painter Herr von Hickel, at whose house it was actually
performed for the first time. The 6 gentlemen who performed it are
poor devils who, however, played quite well together, particularly
the first clarinettist and the two horn players. The main reason why
I had written the serenade was to give Herr von Strack [Emperor
Joseph’s
personal valet],
who visits there daily, a chance to hear something that I had
composed; for that very reason I had put a little extra care into the
composition – and indeed it was very much applauded. During St
Theresia’s Night it was performed at three different locations – they
had no sooner finished playing in one place than they were asked to
play it somewhere else – and for money too. At any rate these night
musicians had asked for the doors to be opened and, after positioning
themselves in the courtyard, they surprised me, just as I was getting
undressed, most agreeably with the opening chord of E-flat…[Letter
to his father from Vienna, November 3 1781].

As
Mozart’s letter makes clear, the original version of K.375 was a
sextet; the octet version was written the following year in the hope
of catching the ear of the Emperor, who had installed a wind octet to
play for him at dinner. Unfortunately for Mozart the Emperor was more
interested in transcriptions of opera arias than original works of
genius.

Francis
Humphrys