Lachner: Two Woodwind Quintets

The woodwind quintet emerged as a genre in the period 1800–1820 with works by Cambini, Danzi, and Reicha, only to lie mostly dormant throughout the remaining years of the nineteenth century. With the two commonly performed quintets from the romantic era (Taffanel and Klughardt) coming towards the end of the century, Franz Lachner’s two quintets (1824 and 1827) constitute a significant and crucial link between the early classical vocabulary of Cambini and Danzi and these later works. Lachner’s works display solid craftsmanship and a real flair for woodwind colors. His writing is idiomatic and shows ties to Franz Schubert, with whom Lachner enjoyed a good friendship until the other’s untimely death. It is to be fervently hoped that the historical importance of Lachner’s two quintets will be recognized and their beauty admired as they emerge from years of unjust neglect.