(elegant music) (audience applauding) - Good afternoon and welcome to today's Nisita Concert Series recital.

This concert features two works that were written for piano and for woodwind.

It's a very unusual combination.

The "Quintet for Piano and Winds" by Mozart is one of his truly great masterpieces of chamber music.

Mozart himself wrote to his father, quote, "I myself consider it to be the best work I have ever composed, unquote."

This is quite high praise, considering that Mozart had already completed almost 40 of his symphonies and half of his piano concertos.

In this piece, Mozart is a true innovator.

The combination of piano and four wind instruments was a first of its kind.

There are no previous examples of this instrumental combination, and very few afterwards.

He had already shown his utter mastery in composing his series of great wind serenades.

At the time he composed this work, he was feverishly producing one masterpiece after another in a incomprehensibly inhuman manner.

It must have been his composing of several piano concerti about the same time that convinced Mozart that he was capable of producing exceptional pieces that combined piano with winds.

Just two weeks before the premiere of this piece, he had premiered his "Piano Concerto in B flat major, K 450," with its prominent woodwind writing.

And just two weeks after the premiere of this quintet, he premiered his fabulous "G major Piano Concerto, K 453," which gives crucial parts to the woodwinds.

In the course of music history, we have certainly heard of composers who compose so well for the winds.

We think of composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Berlioz, Stravinsky, many, many, many others, but in my very humble opinion, there has never been a composer that brought out the essential specific character of each instrument as does Mozart.

Although Mozart was the leading pianist of his day, this quintet is truly a quintet of five equals, each part being crucial, and as I said, each part having a characterization all of its own, which when combined produces the great masterpiece.

We hope you enjoy the performance.

(audience applauding) (instruments tuning) (mellow music) (gentle music) (sprightly music) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) Beethoven's "Quintet for Piano and Winds" was composed only 12 years after the quintet you just heard by Mozart.

It has the same formal design with three movements preceded by an introduction, and it's even in the same key of E flat major.

So is the 25-year-old Beethoven paying homage to the older recently deceased composer, or was he striking out with his own as a budding genius?

Probably a bit of both.

At this time, Beethoven was very much making his mark on the world, not only as a great composer but as a great, the reigning pianist of his day.

While I had previously said that Mozart's quintet has a sense of five equal parts coming together as a whole, Beethoven's quintet has a certain characteristic of the first two piano concerti, which he had composed about the same time.

It is obviously, especially in the first and last movements, it's obviously dominated by the piano.

Thank goodness.

(people laughing) Beethoven's student Ferdinand Ries writes amusingly about the first performance with Beethoven as the pianist, quote, "On the same evening that he played his quintet for pianoforte and wind instruments, in the last Allegro, there were several holds before the theme is resumed.

At one of these, Beethoven suddenly began to improvise, took the Rondo for a theme, and entertained himself and the others for a considerable time, but not the other players.

They were displeased and very angry.

It was really very comical to see them momentarily expecting the performance to be resumed, put their instruments to their mouths, only to put them down again," unquote.

Another historical performance took place with the famous composer, pianist, teacher, and student to Beethoven, Carl Czerny.

Czerny was playing the piano part, and Beethoven was in the audience.

Czerny writes, quote, "When once, for instance, I played the quintet with wind instruments, I permitted myself, in a spirit of youthful carelessness, many changes in the way of adding difficulties to the music, the use of higher octaves, et cetera.

Beethoven quite rightly took me severely to task in the presence of the other players," unquote.

Beethoven wrote in a letter to Czerny the following day, quote, "I burst forth so yesterday that I was sorry after it happened, but you must pardon that in a composer who would have preferred to hear his work exactly as he wrote it, no matter how beautifully you played it in general," unquote.

So I guess the moral of this story is that Beethoven can take any liberties he wants to, but nobody else can.

So to not anger Beethoven, I will attempt to play it as written.

(audience applauding) (instruments tuning) (lyrical music) (serene music) (jaunty music) (audience applauding) (elegant music)