Sextet E major for 2 horns, 2 violins, viola and bass
Peter (von) Winter was born in August 1754 in Mannheim. He was already playing the violin in the orchestra of Mannheim Court at the age of 10. He is also mentioned playing the contrabass. He seemed to be autodidact in composing for a long time, because after 1775, it is said that he asked for lessons G.J.Vogler. In 1796 he was finally acknowledged by his work Unterbrochenen Opferfest in Wien. In 1787 he became the leader of the court music in Munich. Two years later, he continued the "Zauberflöte" by Mozart, naming "Das Labyrinth". The text is also by Schikaneder.
Both sextets printed by Robert Ostermeyer for the first time, are copies of the collection of Franz Zwierzina, library of Oettingen-Wallerstein. Zwierzina wrote about these works: "2 Sextours von Kapellmeister Winter von vorzüglicher Komposition". They are both composed about 1795.
The brothers Böck played a double concerto of Winter in Leipzig 28th March 1803. It could be possible that this double concerto was one of the sextets, because they are very similar to the form of double horn concertos.
