Quintet for Clarinet, Basset Horn & String Trio

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1st movement. completed by Duncan Druce

Additional movements arranged by Tony Turrill

Clarinet, Basset Horn, Violin, Viola, ‘Cello

If you would like to hear an excerpt from the first movement click on the quaver sign. It may a few seconds to load your windows media player.

Sadly  Mozart failed to follow Magnus Magnusson’s example and started but did not finish a number of chamber works for the clarinet family. For the clarinettist,  the quintet he completed ranks as one of the finest chamber works of all time. They can therefore forgive him abandoning the others. For the Basset Horn player, the sketch of the first movement of a quintet for Clarinet, Basset Horn and String Trio (KV Anh. 90 - 580b) is doubly frustrating. Firstly, because the almost complete exposition contains so many  passages where Mozart was writing in one of his most carefree and tuneful moods - there are motifs in abundance simply crying out for the development that was not to be. Secondly, because even in its incomplete form, the work demonstrates the enormous potential of the combination. Had Mozart completed the whole quintet he may well have inspired later composers to write for the instruments. Unhappily, he left the work unfinished and  the basset-horn lay virtually dormant until the 20th century when Richard Strauss again used it with great effect in his great pieces for seventeen wind instruments.  However, should you play this completion, I am sure that you will agree that all has not been lost.  Duncan Druce takes every opportunity to develop the original material of the sketch in true Mozartian style and does it so convincingly that you will find it well nigh impossible “to see the join” without referring to the score.

Duncan Druce lives in West Yorkshire where he teaches at Huddersfield University and Bretton Hall College. He has pursued a highly varied career, as performer, composer, BBC music producer and University and College lecturer.  He was for many years the violinist/violist in Peter Maxwell Davies’ Fires of London and has premiered new works by Birtwistle, Henze, Morton Feldman and many others. He has also been a pioneer in the exploration of the baroque and classical repertoires, using instruments and playing techniques of the period. His compositions, including chamber, orchestral and choral works, have been widely performed and broadcast.  Besides this quintet, he has completed a number of Mozart sketches.  His completion of the Mozart Requiem is published by Novello and has twice been recorded commercially  (e.g. Roger Norrington & the London Classical Playuers, Veritas records)- every basset horn player should twist the arm of their local choir’s musical director to procure the opportunity to play this.  It’s worth it for the Benedictus alone.

A recording of this completion is available on Amon Ra/Saydisc CD-SAR 17 coupled with Alan Hacker’s Penguin Guide recommended recording of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet (K581)

Whilst the completion will no doubt stand alone, it is almost certain that Mozart originally started the work as the first movement of a quintet. This set aims to provide three movements originally written by Mozart which can be played with the single movement to produce a more complete evening’s entertainment.  The first is a Larghetto in F (II)  - taken from the introduction and recapitulation of the first movement of the Quintet in D K593.  Basset Horn players will recognise that even Mozart was not above reusing the same motif - that of the first bar being a replica of his adagio for two Clarinets and three Basset Horns.  The second is the minuet and trio from the quintet K614.  The third movement a Rondo Finale, from the same quintet.     

return to top