Magnus Lindberg

Quintet

Commissioned by The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in celebration of its 50th Anniversary in 2023. The composer remarks that “this new quintet has no less than Mozart and his K452 as its starting point. To have an oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon with an accompanying piano is by no means a usual setup for chamber music. Beethoven wrote his own work inspired by Mozart’s unusual ensemble, and now here I come to follow in their footsteps! The dialogue between the winds and the piano is one feature of this quintet, but what we have here is also like a miniature orchestra. And, on top of that, there are these four instruments in the wind section that act like a choir with soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.” Lindberg adds one more name from the canon of classical music as an influence: “I’ve been curious to explore why just two chords of Purcell are enough to immediately identify a piece of music by this master. So, by studying his use of harmony for many years now, I’ve come to solutions and key elements that can somehow work the same way they did in Purcell’s music 400 years ago. One can say that I’ve spent my time composing chamber music in good company!”