Friedrich Witt
Quintet in F major for Flute, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon and Piano
– First Edition –
Friedrich Witt was born in Niederstetten on 8 November 1770. At about the age of 17 he came to the court of Oettingen-Wallerstein to complete his musical training. He was probably a pupil of Antonio Rosetti (c. 1750–1792). The Wallerstein archive holds an appointment decree for Witt dated 21 January 1790, stating that Witt – “from Mergentheim” (sic!) – had been employed in the court orchestra since 1 October at an annual salary of 300 gulden. In this orchestra he played the cello. The prince repeatedly granted Witt leave for concert tours. He undertook several of these together with the clarinettist Joseph Beer (1770–1819), who was likewise engaged at Wallerstein, travelling to Potsdam, Ludwigslust and Vienna, among other places. Witt probably spent an extended period in Vienna from 1796 onwards. In 1802 the Bishop of Würzburg appointed him court Kapellmeister, a post he held until the court music was dissolved in 1814. From 1804 he also served as music director of the newly founded Würzburg Municipal Theatre. Highly honoured, he died in Würzburg on 3 January 1836.
The Piano Quintet in F major, presented here in print for the first time, survives as a manuscript copy under the shelfmarks Mus. Hs. 311 and Mus. Hs. 243 at the Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt am Main. It is an arrangement of the Trio in F major for piano, violin and cello; the wind version, however, contains only the first and second movements.
As early as 1807, Witt had published a piano quintet (in E-flat major) with Breitkopf & Härtel as op. 6, which was available in a wind version as well as, alternatively, in a version for strings and piano.
It can only be surmised that Witt made the arrangement of his trio himself. Perhaps he prepared it for his half-brother Heinrich Düring (1778–1858), who was a bassoonist in Frankfurt from 1808.
After the second movement, the wind parts bear a note instructing the players to repeat the first movement – evidently just a makeshift solution. For this first edition, the editor has therefore newly arranged the third movement of the piano trio version for the wind ensemble.
