Unsung Clarinet Concertos

[DennisS]

Hello Izdawiz

I bought the Witt cd based on your recommendation. I too think the flute concerto is lovely. The 2 symphonies are also lovely as well. Thank you.

[HerbieG]

For my money, I would recommend a 'BOGOF'; a work that could appear both in this thread and in the Unsung Cello Concertos thread too, and which, when I first heard it on the wireless in 1965, in a broadcast from the Schwetzingen Festival, sent me into stratospheric orbit.  It's the Concertino for Clarinet, Cello and Orchestra by Peter von Winter.  I am sure that he needs no introduction in these 'heiligen hallen'.  However, if any of you don't have this gorgeous work, then I can upload it for you.  I recorded the original broadcast on my open reel recorder, but then it appeared on a Nonesuch LP. 

At the time, Winter was totally unsung; as far as I know, that LP was his debut on a commercial recording.  Since then, several works have appeared:  concert(in)os for flute, bassoon and clarinet, two symphonies, a sinfonia concertante and vocal works, including a complete opera, Maometto II.    I have all of these except the opera.  I must say that none of the other works have quite equalled that Clarinet and Cello Concertino though; even a CD recording that substituted a bassoon for the cello is not quite the full shilling in terms of instrumental timbre - Winter knew what he was doing, I think, when he specified the cello (unless, of course, one of you erudite guys might tell me that you once saw the m/s, which clearly specified the bassoon as the preferred instrument!). 

As I said - I would be delighted to put this work up on the disk, and any others that I mentioned above, though I am pretty sure that you will already have them.

As far as I am concerned, the holy grail for Winter fans is a pair of BASF LPs of his chamber music, in that legendary series of music from various German principalities.  I have most of these but the Winter has eluded me.  Anyone out there got this?

[black]

In my opinion one of the best of the unsung clarinet concertos is the concise one-movement concerto for 2 clarinets & orchestra by the Swiss composer Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee (whose 3rd Symphony, by the way, is re-issued by Sterling). Apart from the both melodic and virtuoso clarinet parts the orchestra has a substantial part that goes beyond the perfunctory accompaniment.

[Mark Thomas]

Oh, good heavens, I didn't think that anybody else knew about the Schnyder van Wartensee Double Clarinet Concerto! I found it on a Swiss LP, bought in Zürich in 1980 for the Raff Sinfonietta. It's a lovely and effective piece, typical of Wartensee's high standard of craftmanship. The other work on the disk, by the way, is by the utterly obscure Joseph Hartmann Stuntz. It's his fizzing little Overture to La Rappressaglia.

[HerbieG]

Mark, I have the Wartensee two-clarinet concerto on an Ex Libris LP, coupled with Krommers Sinfonia Concertante for Flute, Clarinet, Violin and Orchestra, which clocks in at 43 minutes 13 seconds.  Surely this must have been one of the longest concertante works of its time!

Only last week, I transferred two Wartensee symphonies (2 & 3) from LP to CD for a friend of mine who, like us, is into rarities.  I also have a glass harmonica work by him on an old DG 45 rpm disc.

[JimL]

I've heard a Clarinet Concerto in D by Franz Sussmayr, the Mozart pupil who completed his mentor's Requiem.  It's a one movement work with a slow introduction, which, IIRC reappears later on in the work.  It's not a bad little piece at all. 

[Yavar Moradi]

I don't know the work, Herbie, but I must say you've got me interested! Would you mind uploading it?

Yavar

[Alan Howe]

I have just discovered Spohr's four clarinet concertos (on two Orfeo CDs) and find them utterly delightful, occupying as they do that delicious middle ground between late classicism and early romanticism:
No.1 in C minor, Op.26 (1808/9)
No.2 in E flat, Op.57 (1810)
No.3 in F minor, WoO19 (1821)
No.4 in E minor, WoO20 (1829)

[adriano]

... and what about the 10 Clarinet Concertos by Carlo Stamitz? There is a wonderful 3 CD box on TUDOR with Eduard Brunner and the Münchener Kammerorchester conducted by Hans Stadlmair.

[TerraEpon]

... and what about the 10 Clarinet Concertos by Carlo Stamitz? There is a wonderful 3 CD box on TUDOR with Eduard Brunner and the Münchener Kammerorchester conducted by Hans Stadlmair.

Mentioned those above, though they are firmly in the late classical style. I even played one back in high school

I have just discovered Spohr's four clarinet concertos (on two Orfeo CDs) and find them utterly delightful, occupying as they do that delicious middle ground between late classicism and early romanticism:

Eh, as I said above, I find those really boring. Though my post above contains a bunch I do like.

[adriano]

oops, sorry TerraEpon...

[Alan Howe]

The Stamitz concertos are important works, but fall outside our remit. The Tudor set is wonderful - from what I've heard of it.

[eschiss1]

Reissiger's concertante works are pretty definitely within our remit.

[JimL]

Mendelssohn only orchestrated the 1st Konzertstück. The other one was orchestrated by the guy who commissioned both of them.

[semloh]

Some fine works by Busoni, and the Stanford Concerto, are hardly unsung these days, and apart from these I get the impression that the clarinet didn't inspire a great deal of music that fits the remit of UC, at least not in concerto form. However, the beautiful 1885 concerto by Johan Mann on CPO is certainly a candidate. Not to everyone's taste, of course, but there's also the Rimsky-Korsakov Concertstück, which I think is great fun.