MOZART'S ROSES
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Topaz Jewel

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622

(Excerpted from the program notes for "Mozart by Candlelight" concert at Trinity Cathedral on November 16, 2012)


​The Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622, of 1791, displays the richly nuanced style of Mozart's last months of life in a unique work for what was in his time a little-exploited single-reed instrument. 
Picture
Clarinet in B-flat, c. 1780-90, made by Heinrich Carl Tolckle, Germany. Made of boxwood with an ebony mouthpiece.
​The Clarinet Concerto was one of few late works that Mozart wrote without a commission. Apparently a labor of love for his friend Anton Stadler, a virtuoso clarinetist, the work still stands as a challenge to the technical ability and musical artistry of any performer. It is cast in the usual three-movement structure, the two outer movements in faster tempos than the middle movement. The character of the movements is traditional, as well: the first is generally cheerful, presenting its themes in exposition, development and recapitulation process; the second, of hauntingly beautiful lyrical quality, uncannily recalls music in The Magic Flute, written just months earlier; and the third is a merry and optimistic rondo. 
Picture
Anton Stadler
​The concerto’s history is not so straightforward. As the clarinet developed over the course of the 18th century, several cognate instruments grew along with it. One of these, the bassett horn, experienced a brief efflorescence from the 1770s until the early 19th century. The bassett horn was pitched in F or G, lower than the clarinet, and had a distinctive curved or angled shape. Its timbre, mellow and reedy, apparently suggested special applications to Mozart, who used it to advantage from the late 1770s onward in a number of works, notably the Serenade for 13 Winds, K. 316, a number of Masonic works, some small chamber pieces, two operas in 1791, and the Requiem. It was the bassett horn in G rather than the clarinet for which Mozart began writing his concerto. He completed the first movement in 1790, but then set it aside. In October and November of 1791 he took up the work again, recasting the existing movement for yet another relative, the clarinet in A—the typically-pitched clarinet of the time—and adding the remaining two movements. It is likely that Stadler developed and was the exclusive virtuoso on a special version of the clarinet which had an added section, extending its range downward; in the mid-20th century, Czech scholar and clarinettist Jiří Kratochvil named the instrument a bassett clarinet. Stadler would have performed the concerto on his unique instrument. 
Demonstration of a 5-key clarinet by Agnes Gueroult (2016) after Theodor Lotz (Vienna, c. 1780). The instrument is made of boxwood with imitation ivory ferrules and brass keys.  Mouthpiece in grenadilla wood by Agnes Gueroult after Lotz Reeds: Foglietta A Long #2
Demonstration of an 8-key basset horn by Agnes Gueroult (2013) after Theodor Lotz (Vienna, c. 1780). The instrument is made of boxwood with imitation ivory ferrules and brass keys. Mouthpiece in grenadilla wood by Agnes Gueroult after Lotz Reeds: Foglietta A Long #1.5
​We may gauge the degree of Stadler’s virtuosity, and Mozart’s esteem for his artistry, by the musical and technical demands of the concerto. Large leaps and contrasting registers, difficult fingerings and register changes at a rapid pace, extensive arpeggios across the full range, and long melodic arches requiring extraordinary breath and embouchure control call for the greatest skill and care. Careful articulation, ineffable beauty of tone, and exquisite sensitivity to the sense of the music must also have characterized Stadler’s playing—and Mozart captured it all in this concerto.

​                                                                                                                                                                                               Judith Eckelmeyer ©2012

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622
Antony Pay, basset clarinet
The Academy of Ancient Music | Christopher Hogwood, conductor
Performed on period instruments.

I. Allegro [
0:00]
II. Adagio [
12:26]
​III. Rondo: Allegro [
20:21]

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The Magic Flute, II,28.
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"(Die Liebe) mag den Weg mit Rosen streun, weil Rosen stets bei Dornen sein"
"(Love) may strew the path with roses, because roses always come with thorns"
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  • Home
  • N - The Magic Flute
    • Magic Flute Overview Essay
    • Magic Flute Plot
    • Magic Flute Key Relationships
    • Magic Flute Original Production
    • Magic Flute Set and Costume Design
    • Magic Flute Set Inspirations
    • Magic Flute Legacy of Rosenkreuz
    • Magic Flute Freemasons and Rosicrucians
  • NE - Welcome!
  • E - Other Music
    • E - Music Genres >
      • 3 Lenten Works
      • A Few Little Words About the Motet
      • Facts and Fun about Madrigals
      • The Mass
      • Origins and Flourishing of the Concerto
      • What is a Requiem?
    • E - Composers >
      • Bartok: A Biography
      • Haydn: A Tribute
    • E - Extended Discussions >
      • Allegri: Miserere
      • Bach: Cantata 4
      • Bach: Cantata 8
      • Bach: Chaconne in D minor
      • Bach: Concerto for Violin and Oboe
      • Bach: Motet 6
      • Bach: Passion According to St. John
      • Bach: Prelude and Fuge in B-minor
      • Bartok: String Quartets
      • Brahms: A German Requiem
      • David: The Desert
      • Durufle: Requiem
      • Faure: Cantique de Jean Racine
      • Faure: Requiem
      • Handel: Christmas Portion of Messiah
      • Haydn: Farewell Symphony
      • Liszt: Évocation à la Chapelle Sistine"
      • Poulenc: Gloria
      • Poulenc: Quatre Motets
      • Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brazilieras
      • Weill
    • E - Grace Woods >
      • Grace Woods: 1-16-23
      • Grace Woods: 12-12-22
      • Grace Woods: 11-21-2022
      • Grace Woods: 10-31-2022
      • Grace Woods: 10-2022
      • Grace Woods: 8-29-22
      • Grace Woods: 8-8-22
      • Grace Woods: 9-6 & 9-9-21
      • Grace Woods: 5-2022
      • Grace Woods: 12-21
      • Grace Woods: 6-2021
      • Grace Woods: 5-2021
    • E - Trinity Cathedral >
      • Program Notes: 11-20-09
      • Program Notes: 11-16-12
      • Program Notes: 4-18-14
      • Program Notes: 11-21-14
      • Program Notes: 4-3-15
      • Program Notes: 3-25-16
      • Program Notes: 4-14-17
  • SE - Original Compositions
    • Trinity "Hodie" Service
    • "Peace I Leave With You"
    • "The Road Not Taken"
    • "Epiphany"
  • S - Roses
    • Introduction
    • Sources for Old Roses
    • Useful and Interesting Rose Books
    • Around the Garden
    • 2012 Rose Garden
    • BOURBON
    • CENTIFOLIA
    • DAMASK
    • FLORIBUNDA
    • GROUND
    • HYBRID MUSK
    • HYBRID PERPETUAL
    • NOISETTE
    • OLD SHRUB
    • PIMPINELLIFOLIA HYBRID
    • POLYANTHA
    • PORTLAND
    • RUGOSA
  • SW - Chamber Music
    • 12/93 The Shostakovich Trio
    • 10/93 London Baroque
    • 3/93 Australian Chamber Orchestra
    • 2/93 Arcadian Academy
    • 1/93 Ilya Itin
    • 10/92 The Cleveland Octet
    • 4/92 Shura Cherkassky
    • 3/92 The Castle Trio
    • 2/92 Paris Winds
    • 11/91 Trio Fontenay
    • 2/91 Baird & DeSilva
    • 4/90 The American Chamber Players
    • 2/90 I Solisti Italiana
    • 1/90 The Berlin Octet
    • 3/89 Schotten-Collier Duo
    • 1/89 The Colorado Quartet
    • 10/88 Talich String Quartet
    • 9/88 Oberlin Baroque Ensemble
    • 5/88 The Images Trio
    • 4/88 Gustav Leonhardt
    • 2/88 Benedetto Lupo
    • 9/87 The Mozartean Players
    • 11/86 Philomel
    • 4/86 The Berlin Piano Trio
    • 2/86 Ivan Moravec
    • 4/85 Zuzana Ruzickova
  • W - Other Mozart
    • Mozart: 1777-1785
    • Mozart: 235th Commemoration
    • Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus
    • Mozart: Church Sonatas
    • Mozart: Clarinet Concerto
    • Mozart: Don Giovanni
    • Mozart: Exsultate, jubilate
    • Mozart: Magnificat from Vesperae de Dominica
    • Mozart: Mass in C, K.317 "Coronation"
    • Mozart: Masonic Funeral Music,
    • Mozart: Requiem
    • Mozart: Requiem and Freemasonry
    • Mozart: Sampling of Solo and Chamber Works from Youth to Full Maturity
    • Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat
    • Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 in C major
    • Mozart: Two Works of Mozart: Mass in C and Sinfonia Concertante
  • NW - Kaleidoscope
    • Whimsy >
      • Egg Art
      • Exceptional Artifacts
      • Garden Ephemera
      • Musical Rarities
      • Nature
      • Reading Recommendations
      • Travel
    • Alfred Whittaker Introduction >
      • Alfred Whittaker CV
      • Alfred Whittaker Essays
    • Multidisciplinarity in Education and Research
  • Contact