The Del'Arte Quintet, ensemble-in-residence at the University of Delaware, will play piano quintets by Mozart and Beethoven at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Recital Hall of the Music Building.

The Del'Arte Quintet will interpret Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds, K.452 and Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16. The Mozart piece probably inspired Beethoven's composition, said Daryl Durran, assistant professor of bassoon.

"They sound somewhat similar but they do represent pretty different viewpoints," Durran said. "Mozart was very fond of this piece that he wrote. We know this through his letters to his father."

Although the pieces are structurally similar, the Beethoven piece is "considerably more harmonically adventurous" -- a characteristic of the Romantic period-- than the very classical style of Mozart, Durran explained.

"In both these pieces the piano is the primary instrument," Durran said. "The wind instruments seem to be accompanimental. They're really keyboard pieces."

In addition to the Mozart and Beethoven piano quintets, the ensemble will also play a reed trio. Concert Champetre by Tomasi will be performed by clarinetist Charles Salinger, oboist Lloyd Shorter and bassoonist Jesse Read.

"There is a fairly large body of music for what's called the Trio D'anches, which means 'reed trio,"' Durran said. "The Tomasi piece is one of the standards for wind chamber ensembles. "Tomasi is representative of an awful lot of French writing for woodwinds in the first half of the 20th century. It's going to sound a little bit like Ravel and Debussy."

Shorter, Salinger, Read, flutist Eileen Grycky, hornist Francis Orval, and pianist Michael Steinberg will arrive Thursday afternoon to teach master classes, said Lisa Bontrager, assistant professor of French horn.

Bontrager arranged the Del'Arte Quintet's visit and free concert through her professional association with quintet hornist Francis Orval. She said the performance is part of a mutual exchange between Penn State and the University of Delaware.

Durran said the Pennsylvania Quintet, composed of University faculty members, plans to perform at the University of Delaware next year. The exact date of the visit has not yet been set.

Del'Arte is an abbreviation for Delaware Arte quintet. The quintet will be hosted by the University School of Music.