Oboe Quartet in F major, K.370

I. Allegro: the oboe opens with a graceful, arching tune over the three strings, then trades phrases with them as if in conversation rather than accompaniment. Listen for how often the oboe leaps up high and holds a note while the strings keep moving underneath.

II. Adagio: a short, tender slow movement in a minor key, built around a long-breathed oboe melody that feels almost like an aria without words. It is brief but stands out for its hushed, intimate mood before the finale breaks it.

III. Rondeau, Allegro: a dancing, good-humored finale where a recurring tune keeps popping back between livelier episodes. The famous moment arrives when the meter suddenly shifts and the oboe rushes through a fast, tumbling passage in a different rhythmic feel from the strings, before the opening tune returns to close things out.

Mozart wrote this quartet in Munich during the winter of 1780 to 1781, while he was there for the premiere of his opera Idomeneo. He composed it for Friedrich Ramm, the principal oboist of the Munich court orchestra, whose playing Mozart had long admired. The piece shows off Ramm's agility and tone by treating the oboe almost as a vocal soloist against the backdrop of violin, viola and cello. It has remained one of the few substantial works pairing solo oboe with string trio in the standard chamber repertoire, and it is now a staple for professional oboists, valued both as a showpiece and as a compact, warm example of Mozart's late Salzburg era style.