Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, K. 622 & Clarinet Quintet, K. 581

Featuring

Thea King
Jeffrey Tate
Brendan O'Reilly
Kenneth Sillito
Ian Jewel
Keith Harvey

English Chamber Orchestra
Gabrieli String Quartet
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Composer Biography

Mozart's enthusiasm for the clarinet, which began in his early teens, was fully realized in the last seven years of his life through his friendship with Anton Stadler, a clarinettist of genius.

Compositional Technique

The Clarinet Concerto, written in the same year as Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, contains possible Masonic allusions, including a significant bar at number 333 and repeated use of the number three in musical figures and scoring.

Critical Reception

For nearly 150 years, performances of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Quintet used altered editions, until a 1967 discovery by Swiss musicologist Ernst Hess revealed how radically the original basset clarinet parts had been changed.

Composition History

The autograph scores of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Quintet are lost, likely given to Anton Stadler, and the basset clarinet itself became obsolete, leading to early published editions being altered.

Interpretation

This recording is the first to feature both the Clarinet Quintet and Concerto with the solo part played on a basset clarinet, using restored versions of the original scores.

Composition History

Mozart composed his Clarinet Concerto and probably his Clarinet Quintet for the extended basset clarinet, an instrument developed by Anton Stadler.

Instruments

Anton Stadler, a clarinettist and a Freemason, contributed to the technical development of the clarinet by extending its compass downwards, creating what is now called the basset clarinet.