Martin Joseph Mengal
Quintet after Rossini for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn & Bassoon
– First Edition –
The Mengal brothers are frequently confused in reference literature. There were two: Martin Joseph Mengal (1784–1851) and his younger brother Jean Mengal (1792–1878), both distinguished horn players. Biographical notes on Martin Joseph Mengal are available separately. His younger brother Jean trained in Paris under the horn player Domnich and, like his brother in 1809, won the 1st Prize of the Paris Conservatoire in 1814. He served as principal horn at the Paris Opéra and composed for his instrument. As a result, individual compositions cannot always be attributed with certainty to one brother or the other.
In 1824 the Paris publisher Pleyel printed three wind quintets by Mengal, based on melodies by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The present wind quintet, however, was not among them at the time. The original score survives in manuscript at the library of the Ghent Conservatory, under the title “1me Quintetto de Rossini,” referring to the later Pleyel printed edition. The work appears to have been composed before 1820, drawing on themes from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” which had its Paris premiere in 1819.
For this first edition, a B-flat clarinet part has been newly edited in addition to the original C part.
