Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Quintet from Op. 71.

Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized on December 17, 1770 at Bonn. His family originated from Brabant, in Belgium. His father was musician at the Court of Bonn. The Beethoven family consisted of seven children, but only the three boys survived. Of these three, Beethoven was the eldest. At an early age, Beethoven took an interest in music, and his father taught him day and night, on returning to the house from music practice or the tavern. Without doubt, the child was gifted, and his father Johann envisioned creating a new Mozart, a child prodigy.

On March 26, 1778, at the age of 8, Beethoven gave his first know public performance, at Cologne. His father announced that he was 6 years old. Because of this, Beethoven always thought that he was younger than he actually was. Even much later, when he received a copy of his baptism certificate, he thought that it belonged to his brother Ludwig Maria, who was born two years before him, and died as a child. Beethoven is known for his nine symphonies of great value and significance as well as chamber works for winds, strings, piano, and works for voice.

His Opus 71 was originally written for a sextet made up of pairs of clarinets, horns, and bassoons, but has been arranged by Albert Andraud for the typical wind quintet instrumentation. It consists of four contrasting movements.  The first starts dramatically with all instruments in unison but eventually breaks into full chords.  After the striking beginning, the tempo picks up and continues in a lively three feeling that starts in the clarinet.  The second movement is lush and features the horn in a slow flowing solo line.  The melody repeats throughout with various instrument combinations.  The third movement is a traditional Minuet and Trio that begins with a horn-call-like introduction and then changes to woodwind dominated sound.  The fourth is lively rondo.  The melody is rather bouncy, but there is a rapid undercurrent declared by the clarinet and finished with a typical stately Beethoven unison rhythmic pattern.