Beethoven wrote the fundamental material of this quintet in 1793, but the work was pieced together and elaborated only in 1862 by Leopold Zellner. Beethoven apparently intended this to be a wind sextet with clarinet, but he never bothered to write any notes on the clarinet's staff. All that survived was the recapitulation of the first movement appended to the last 22 bars of its development, the slow movement, and the first 19 bars of the Minuet. Zellner didn't fabricate anything that he didn't have any Beethovenian evidence for, such as the Minuet's trio or any kind of finale, and he based the first movement's exposition on what he found in the recapitulation.

The first movement (Allegro) begins with the three horns playing a melody that's jaunty yet almost lyrical enough to downplay associations with the hunt. The oboe and bassoon join in, though, for a gesture of first a rising phrase, then a falling one, that faintly evokes a call through the forest. This becomes integrated with the initial horn melody to produce a theme of great variety that can easily be broken into its components for development. Before that happens, the oboe comes forward with a little plaintive aria that echoes the late operas of Mozart, and for most of the rest of the exposition, the oboe has the primary melodic line. After the exposition repeat, the development section begins with some horn-dominated passages reminiscent of Weber's forest music, a case of Zellner looking back, rather than Beethoven looking ahead. There's also a striking minor-mode passage featuring the oboe, followed by some rather uninspired transitional noodling before the recapitulation brings back the opening material. The Adagio maestoso also opens with the horns, now playing a stately melody elaborated by the oboe (the bassoon's role is almost always subsidiary). Again there appears the world of Mozart's operas, particularly the slower numbers in Così fan tutte. There follows some manipulation of atmosphere, a repeat of all the slow movement's material to that point, and a passage of free dialog between the oboe and the horns before the horns end the movement with a few gentle chords. The perky Minuet carries the idea of dialog further, with the horns making statements that are answered or sometimes merely echoed by oboe and bassoon. All of the instruments do occasionally intertwine their lines, but for the most part, Beethoven has created about 90 seconds of call and response.

© All Music Guide