Joseph Fiala: Quintet in G major for Oboe or Flute, Violin, 2 Violas and Cello (ROM 385)
Joseph Fiala was born in 1748 in Lochovice (German: Lochowitz) in Bohemia. After training on the oboe and cello in Prague, he moved in 1774 to Wallerstein in southern Germany, where he served until 1777 as oboist to the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein. He then went to Munich and, shortly afterwards, to Salzburg, where he joined the court orchestra of the Archbishop. From around 1783, for health reasons, he no longer played the oboe and turned to the viola da gamba and the cello. In 1785 he moved to Vienna and subsequently spent some time in Russia, building up a court orchestra for Count Orlov-Cesmenskij. From 1792 until his death in 1816 he served at the court of the Prince of Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen.
The three quintets in F major (ROM 383), B-flat major (ROM 384) and G major (ROM 385) survive in manuscript parts held by the National Library in Prague. They were certainly composed during Fiala's years as an active oboist, that is, before 1785. They may belong to the six quintets for the same instrumentation that the Viennese publisher Traeg advertised in 1799, but these can no longer be traced today.
