Assonanzen-Quintett

The work was commissioned by the Schwetzingen Mozart Festival at the suggestion of clarinetist Nikolaus Friedrich who wished to enrich the rather meagre repertoire for basset clarinet. This edition contains the part of this instrument, much appreciated by Mozart, arranged for modern B-flat clarinet. As the title suggests, audible tonal and motivic analogies have a formative effect in this cycle, the parts of which the composer regards as five “sound poems, interconnected in some ways,” and which also refers motivically to other works by Höller.

At the centre is a slow and expressive movement in the character of a lament, which is linked by the seven-tone motto A-B flat-E flat-C-B-E-D (German: a-b-es-c-h-e-d (= “Abschied“, meaning “farewell”)) to the surrounding lively movements, some of which seem deliberately improvisatory. The strings, although accompanying, are hardly less virtuoso than the solo wind instrument, especially in the rapid finale.