Joseph Mysilvecek, who was bornin 1737 in Prague and died in 1781 inRome, is one of the most important Czechcom posers of the years between the lateBa roque period and Viennese Classicism.A qualifi ed master miller, Myslivecek abandonedhis trade early on to devote himselfentirely to music and in 1763, spurred on bythe success of his fi rst symphonies, he leftBohemia to try out his skills as a com poser indistant Italy. For many years he was popularwith the Italian public, and was also held inhigh regard by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,19 years younger, who fi rst met him in Bolognain 1770, and re mained in contact withhim through the latter years of his life whenMyslivecek was dogged by illness and failures.His com positions obviously belong to aninter mediate period: his almost 30 operasare conservatively written in the tradition ofthe Neapolitan school, his oratorio arias aremore modern and his chamber and orchestralmusic already anticipates Mo zart’swealth of expressivity.Myslivecek’s string quintets for two violins,two violas and bass (cello and doublebass) are among the fi rst examples of thenew genre that emerged around the mid dleof the 18th century. From their structure andcompositional technique they are typicalearly works of the new type of chambermusic. They follow the traditional threemovementpattern of the Italian so nata,with the order of movements slow- fast-fastin the G major quintet and fast- slow-fastin the E fl at major and C major quin tets.The classical ideal of equal involvement ofall the parts in the thematic ma terial is notyet attained. The melody is mainly playedby the two violins, frequent ly in unison orrunning parallel to one another, but thereare also occasional solo passages for theviolas. The slow movements carry the mostweight from the point of view of content,highlighting Myslivecek’s particular gift forcomposing-expansive cantilenas.The fourth work of this recordingis an ar rangement for string quintet ofa combina tion of movements from twowoodwind serenades by or attributed toMozart. The unknown arranger madeuse of the open structure of the four-partserenade music, which enables individualmovements to be picked out and put intodifferent combina tions. The fi rst and thirdmovements are taken from the »Romance«and the vari ation movement (»Tema convariazioni») of the wind serenade in B fl atK 631 (370a), which was probably writtenaround the end of 1783 and the beginningof 1784 and is known by the nameof Gran Partita, although this was acquiredlater and is not authentic. The seven-movementwork was written for two oboes, twoclarinets, two basset-horns, four horns,two bassoons and double bass, an expansionof the so-called Harmonie ensemblefor pairs of wind instruments for which Mozart wrote several pieces. The sere nade,which was announced in an adver tisementfor a concert in Vienna in 1784 as »greatwind music of a very special kind«, had anumber of unusual features: the size of theensemble, the use of the recently inventedbasset horn, the artistry of the en semblewriting and the personal expressi vity ofindividual movements. The latter is also adistinguishing mark of the ro mance andvariations with their melancho ly sensitivityand enchanting delicateness that have moredepth of feeling than easy music writtensimply to be enjoyed. The minuet and thecheerful fi nal movement of the arrangementare as is normal less profound. Theyare identical with the fi rst movements of aDivertimento in E fl at for wind octet, writtenfor pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons,which is included in the Köchel indexamongst the works which have not beendefi nitively established as Mozart’s own (K.Anh. 224 C 17.01) and is thought to havebeen com posed in Munich early in 1775.Stylistically its genuineness can neither beproved nor disproved, although an noticeably struc tured melody developmentwould seem to suggest that Mozartwas not the com poser. There is howeverno doubt that the borrowing of individualmovements, the instrumental arrangementand also the in clusion of good imitationswere typical of the liberal exploitation ofworks and fa mous names that took place inthe 18th and 19th centuries and are a notinsigni fi cant consequence of genius.