Late in the evening on his name day in 1781 Mozart was on his way to bed when he suddenly heard familiar sounds coming from outside: the six musicians who had given the première of his Serenade in E-flat major two weeks beforehand and whom he had described as “poor fellows, but who can blow together quite nicely” had now met in the courtyard and were serenading him with his own work. Although it was officially composed for The-rese Hickel, in actual fact Mozart mainly wanted to impress Emperor Joseph II, whose chief of the royal chamber music often went to Therese’s house – “That’s the reason why I also put a little effort into it”. Did it really help? At any rate Mozart was appointed imperial chamber composer by Joseph II a few years later.
