Also known as the Gran Partita, the serenade in B-flat was originally scored for 13 winds: pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassett horns, horns in Eb, horns in Bb, bassoons and a contrabassoon. Written 1n 1781, it is considered Mozart’s greatest work for winds alone. Since it is always my goal to keep as much of the original ambience as possible when reducing a work to quintet size, this score presented quite a challenge. It is also a bit challenging to perform, our group as found it well worth the effort. Since the entire score runs almost 50 minutes, we usually only perform 2 or 3 movements. Audiences especially appreciate the 3rd, 5th and 7th movements, but they are all very enjoyable to play.