WEBER: Clarinet Works op. 34

Jandó, Jenő;
Berkes, Kálmán;
Auer String Quartet

8.553122

Weber's three concertos for clarinet were written in 1811 for the Munich clarinettist Heinrich Bärmann, who had served as a Prussian army bandsman at Potsdam, before joining the Munich orchestra, where the earlier traditions of Mannheim were continued. Weber had met Bärmann at Darmstadt, during the course of a concert tour that then took him to Munich, where he renewed the acquaintance. It was towards the end of the same year that Weber wrote his Seven Variations on a Theme from Silvana, for clarinet and piano. It was at the same period that he first began work on his Clarinet Quintet, again designed for Bärmann, a composition that he completed finally in 1815, after giving it his intermittent attention. • In the opening Allegro, a tripartite sonata-form movement, chief melodic interest centres on the clarinet, idiomatically handled. The second movement Fantasia gives the instrument an aria in which both mellifluousness of tone and agility can be displayed, while the Minuet again exploits the full range of the clarinet. The Quintet ends with bravura writing for Barmann in a final brilliant display.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

08-05-1995

730099412223