Rodney Trudgeon's Concert Notes by Rodney Trudgeon

Author:Rodney Trudgeon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: [ISBN here]
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Published: 2019-12-02T13:13:59+00:00

Clarinet Concerto in A major, K622

It’s worth remembering that it was only in around 1771 that the clarinet became an established member of the orchestra. Mozart had already written some small parts for the instrument, but it was after his meeting with the clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler in 1784 that he truly came to love the instrument. By all accounts, Stadler was a superb player who produced the most exquisite sound. He also made a few adjustments to the clarinet that gave it a deeper, richer lower register. These days the clarinet with a lower pitch is known as a basset horn.

Mozart composed his Clarinet Concerto around October 1791. He had just returned from Prague to Vienna, and it turned out to be the last major work he composed. Apart from a few fragments of a requiem and one or two other works, nothing else of any major import appeared. Late in November 1791 Mozart became ill and went to bed. He died on 5 December.

The concerto is cast in the same key as that of the Piano Concerto No. 23: A major, a key that Mozart seemed to enjoy. The mood throughout the piece is intimate and strangely subdued. The first movement is fairly long and features beautiful writing, not only for the soloist, but also for the orchestral flutes. There is an abundance of thematic ideas rather than a strict two-subject layout.

The second movement is an Adagio in the key of B major. The music has a gentle melancholy as the clarinet sings its long, restrained melody. This is Mozart in a transcendental space, writing music of unsurpassed eloquence and beauty.

The mood lightens, but only just, for the Rondo finale. As someone once said, ‘This music smiles, it doesn’t laugh.’

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