Clarinet Concerto (Mozart)
Encyclopedia
Mozart
's Clarinet concerto in A major, K.
622 was written in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler
.
It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast–slow–fast form:
It was also one of Mozart's final completed works, and his final purely instrumental work (he died in the December following its completion). The concerto is notable for its delicate interplay between soloist
and orchestra
, and for the lack of overly extroverted display on the part of the soloist (no cadenza
s are written out in the solo part).
, a special clarinet championed by Stadler that had a range down to low (written) C, instead of stopping at (written) E as standard clarinets do. As most clarinets could not play the low notes which Mozart wrote to highlight this instrument, Mozart's publisher arranged a version of the concerto with the low notes transposed
to regular range, and did not publish the original version. This has proven a problematic decision, as the autograph no longer exists, having been pawned
by Stadler, and until the mid 20th century musicologists did not know that the only version of the concerto written by Mozart's hand had not been heard since Stadler's lifetime. Once the problem was discovered, attempts were made to reconstruct the original version, and new basset clarinets have been built for the specific purpose of performing Mozart's concerto and clarinet quintet. There can no longer be any doubt that the concerto was composed for a clarinet with an extended range. In this context it is worth noting two other works written for Stadler and his instrument by composers closely linked to the Mozart–Stadler circle that used the extended range of Stadler's instrument: the clarinet concerto by Franz Xaver Süssmayr
(famous for having completed Mozart's Requiem
) and that by Joseph Leopold Eybler
. In recent years, the restored original version has been recorded by a number of different artists.
on October 16, 1791. Reception of his performance was generally positive. The Berlin Musikalisches Wochenblatt noted in January 1792, "Herr Stadeler, a clarinettist from Vienna. A man of great talent and recognised as such at court... His playing is brilliant and bears witness to his assurance." There was some disagreement on the value of Stadler's extension; some even faulted Mozart for writing for the extended instrument.
(cadenza), although no context is offered for a true cadenza.
The main theme reappears transposed, and leads to the novel feature of the soloist accompanying the orchestra with an Alberti bass
. Further development leads to dramatic turn, which, after a tutti
, leads back into the main theme.
The Alberti bass and arpeggios for the soloist recur before the movement ends in a relatively cheerful tutti in A major.
The second half of the double exposition of this movement (frequently called simply "the exposition" by clarinetists since it is the only part they play) appears on almost every professional orchestral clarinet audition.
(i.e. ABA). (It was popularized by the film Out of Africa.) It opens with the soloist playing the movement's primary theme with orchestral repetition. The development, in which the solo part is always prominent, exploits both the chalumeau
and clarion
registers, while the restatement of the opening culminates in a cadenza
.
.
The opening refrain (bars 1–56) features the soloist in dialogue with the orchestra, much more so than in his piano concertos. In many ways, this is a dialogue of one-upmanship—the more definitive the statement made by the orchestra, the more virtuosic the response by the clarinet.
The first episode (bars 57–113) features chromaticism and dramatic lines custom-written for the basset clarinet with its low extension. The refrain (114–137) is heard again in a slightly simpler manner, and the music modulates to F minor.
The second episode (bars 137–187) contains "one of the most dramatic showcases for the basset clarinet in the entire concerto, featuring spectacular leaps, together with dialog between soprano and baritone registers." After this episode there is no refrain.
The third episode (bars 188–246) is a recapitulation of the first, but instead of a simple restatement, it modulates four times. This allows the soloist frequent opportunities to display chromatic figurations, and the composer to demonstrate his creativity in the reworking of the material.
The refrain (bars 247–301) is heard for the final time, exactly as presented in the opening, before proceeding to the coda (bars 301–353). Here the rondo theme is developed dramatically, using the full range of the clarinet. Mozart uses leaps, trills, and figurations. In the end, the more cheerful mood returns, and the concerto ends with a tutti untouched by the melancholy seen elsewhere in the work.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Clarinet concerto in A major, K.
Köchel-Verzeichnis
The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
622 was written in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler was an Austrian clarinet and basset horn player for whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote both his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings and Clarinet Concerto....
.
It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast–slow–fast form:
- AllegroTempoIn musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
- AdagioTempoIn musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
- RondoRondoRondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
: Allegro
It was also one of Mozart's final completed works, and his final purely instrumental work (he died in the December following its completion). The concerto is notable for its delicate interplay between soloist
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
and orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, and for the lack of overly extroverted display on the part of the soloist (no cadenza
Cadenza
In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
s are written out in the solo part).
Original version
Mozart originally wrote the work for basset clarinetBasset clarinet
The basset clarinet is a clarinet, similar to the usual soprano clarinet but longer and with additional keys to enable playing several additional lower notes...
, a special clarinet championed by Stadler that had a range down to low (written) C, instead of stopping at (written) E as standard clarinets do. As most clarinets could not play the low notes which Mozart wrote to highlight this instrument, Mozart's publisher arranged a version of the concerto with the low notes transposed
Transposition (music)
In music transposition refers to the process, or operation, of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval.For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key...
to regular range, and did not publish the original version. This has proven a problematic decision, as the autograph no longer exists, having been pawned
Pawnbroker
A pawnbroker is an individual or business that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral...
by Stadler, and until the mid 20th century musicologists did not know that the only version of the concerto written by Mozart's hand had not been heard since Stadler's lifetime. Once the problem was discovered, attempts were made to reconstruct the original version, and new basset clarinets have been built for the specific purpose of performing Mozart's concerto and clarinet quintet. There can no longer be any doubt that the concerto was composed for a clarinet with an extended range. In this context it is worth noting two other works written for Stadler and his instrument by composers closely linked to the Mozart–Stadler circle that used the extended range of Stadler's instrument: the clarinet concerto by Franz Xaver Süssmayr
Franz Xaver Süssmayr
Franz Xaver Süssmayr was an Austrian composer, now famous for his completion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem.-Early life:...
(famous for having completed Mozart's Requiem
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
) and that by Joseph Leopold Eybler
Joseph Leopold Eybler
Joseph Leopold Eybler was an Austrian composer known today perhaps more for his friendship with Mozart than for his own music.-Life:...
. In recent years, the restored original version has been recorded by a number of different artists.
Premiere
The concerto was given its premiere by Stadler in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
on October 16, 1791. Reception of his performance was generally positive. The Berlin Musikalisches Wochenblatt noted in January 1792, "Herr Stadeler, a clarinettist from Vienna. A man of great talent and recognised as such at court... His playing is brilliant and bears witness to his assurance." There was some disagreement on the value of Stadler's extension; some even faulted Mozart for writing for the extended instrument.
First movement: Allegro
Originally written as a sketch for basset horn, the movement opens with an orchestral statement of the main theme. The theme is taken up by the soloist, and the music quickly takes on a more melancholy feel. At the end of this section, the pauses in the solo part are occasionally taken as a point to perform an eingangCadenza
In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
(cadenza), although no context is offered for a true cadenza.
The main theme reappears transposed, and leads to the novel feature of the soloist accompanying the orchestra with an Alberti bass
Alberti bass
Alberti bass is a particular kind of accompaniment in music, often used in the Classical era, and sometimes the Romantic era. It was named after Domenico Alberti , who used it extensively, although he was not the first to use it....
. Further development leads to dramatic turn, which, after a tutti
Tutti
Tutti is an Italian word literally meaning all or together and is used as a musical term, for the whole orchestra as opposed to the soloist...
, leads back into the main theme.
The Alberti bass and arpeggios for the soloist recur before the movement ends in a relatively cheerful tutti in A major.
The second half of the double exposition of this movement (frequently called simply "the exposition" by clarinetists since it is the only part they play) appears on almost every professional orchestral clarinet audition.
- Orchestral ritornello: bars 1–56
- Solo exposition: bars 57–154
- Ritornello: bars 154–171
- Development: bars 172–227
- Ritornello: bars 227–250
- Recapitulation: bars 251–343
- Ritornello: bars 343–359
Second movement: Adagio
The second movement, marked Adagio, is written in ternary formTernary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...
(i.e. ABA). (It was popularized by the film Out of Africa.) It opens with the soloist playing the movement's primary theme with orchestral repetition. The development, in which the solo part is always prominent, exploits both the chalumeau
Chalumeau
This article is about the historical musical instrument. For the register on the clarinet that is named for this instrument, see Clarinet#Range....
and clarion
Clarion (instrument)
Clarion is a common name for a trumpet in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It also is used as a name for a 4' organ reed stop. There is wide confusion over whether clarion invariably refers to a type of trumpet or simply the upper register of the standard trumpet....
registers, while the restatement of the opening culminates in a cadenza
Cadenza
In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
.
Third movement: Rondo: Allegro
The closing rondo has a cheerful refrain, with episodes either echoing this mood or recalling the darker colours of the first movement. It is a blend of sonata and rondo forms that Mozart developed in his piano concertos, most noticeably the A major Piano Concerto, K. 488Piano Concerto No. 23 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major is a musical composition for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was finished, according to Mozart's own catalogue, on March 2, 1786, around the time of the premiere of his opera, The Marriage of Figaro...
.
The opening refrain (bars 1–56) features the soloist in dialogue with the orchestra, much more so than in his piano concertos. In many ways, this is a dialogue of one-upmanship—the more definitive the statement made by the orchestra, the more virtuosic the response by the clarinet.
The first episode (bars 57–113) features chromaticism and dramatic lines custom-written for the basset clarinet with its low extension. The refrain (114–137) is heard again in a slightly simpler manner, and the music modulates to F minor.
The second episode (bars 137–187) contains "one of the most dramatic showcases for the basset clarinet in the entire concerto, featuring spectacular leaps, together with dialog between soprano and baritone registers." After this episode there is no refrain.
The third episode (bars 188–246) is a recapitulation of the first, but instead of a simple restatement, it modulates four times. This allows the soloist frequent opportunities to display chromatic figurations, and the composer to demonstrate his creativity in the reworking of the material.
The refrain (bars 247–301) is heard for the final time, exactly as presented in the opening, before proceeding to the coda (bars 301–353). Here the rondo theme is developed dramatically, using the full range of the clarinet. Mozart uses leaps, trills, and figurations. In the end, the more cheerful mood returns, and the concerto ends with a tutti untouched by the melancholy seen elsewhere in the work.