Classical Club | Michael Collins: Clarinet at the Clock Tower Michael Collins: Clarinet at the Clock Tower Weber: Clarinet Quintet in B Flat Major, Op.34 Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K.581 London Mozart Players Michael Collins: clarinet London Mozart Players Classical Club | Michael Collins: Clarinet at the Clock Tower Coming soon... With artists from the Young Classical Artists Trust Michael Collins: Clarinet at the Clock Tower Broadcast on 7pm, Thursday 1 October. Filmed at St Pancras Clock Tower. Weber: Clarinet Quintet in B Flat Major, Op.34 Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K.581 Bows and Oboes Celebrating Beethoven London Mozart Players Strauss: Concerto in D major for Oboe Beethoven: Coriolan Overture, Op.62 Michael Collins: clarinet Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 in A major, Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Op.61 Violin 1 – Simon Blendis Op.90 ‘Italian’ Violin 2 – Jenny Godson Jonian Ilias Kadesha: violin Viola – Judith Busbridge Mateusz Moleda: conductor Cello – Sebastian Comberti Olivier Stankiewicz: oboe Broadcast date: 7pm, Sunday 15 November Filmed at St John’s Smith Square Broadcast date: 7pm, Thursday 15 October Filmed at Fairfield Halls, Croydon To celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, LMP performs his Coriolan Inspired by a chance wartime meeting Overture and Violin Concerto. The overture Keep in touch! between the composer and a soldier, reflects the contrasting moods of Heinrich Strauss’s spirited Oboe Concerto is in von Collin’s play – Coriolan’s aggression and If you have enjoyed this concert and londonmozartplayers fact exceptionally difficult to play, with his mother’s gentle pleading. Beethoven’s would like to hear more about the mozartplayers circular breathing a pre-requisite. This revolutionary Violin Concerto, performed London Mozart Players then do sign londonmozartplayers.com concert showcases two artists destined by rising star and YCAT artist Jonian Ilias up for our newsletter via our website. for stardom, oboist Olivier Stankiewicz and Kadesha, takes us on an exhilarating conductor Mateusz Moleda. Mendelssohn’s journey from a lyrical first movement to a jaunty Italian Symphony is an extra treat. joyous rambunctious finale. It’s a hugely You’ll get to hear first about all our The concert comes from Fairfield Halls, satisfying masterpiece, and the perfect upcoming concerts and exclusive Croydon, where London Mozart Players has work with which to salute Beethoven’s events, and enjoy priority booking enjoyed a 30-year residency. genius. and special offers. London Mozart Players Classical Club | Michael Collins: Clarinet at the Clock Tower Programme notes This programme of clarinet quintets is a real celebration of friendship and innovation. Both Audio examples pieces were written for particular clarinettists who were close friends of each composer, and both collaborations led to works which pushed the boundaries of what was then Our programme notes refer to specific possible for the clarinet. Both are major points of interest which you may like milestones in the history of music for the to listen to – we’ve supplied a Spotify clarinet. reference to a recording of Weber’s Clarinet Quintet by the Carducci Quartet and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet by the Arcanto Quartett. Carl Maria von Weber for whom the quintets were written, and the development of the clarinet as an Clarinet Quintet in B Flat instrument. Major The quintet was begun in 1811, an important i) Allegro year for Weber. The previous few years had been difficult. He fell into debt, was ii) Fantasia charged with embezzlement and bribery and iii) Menuetto, capriccio presto eventually banished from Wurttemberg. But iv) Rondo, allegro giocoso by 1811 he had settled in Heidelberg and started to build a new life. He was beginning to make new musical friends and was Weber probably would have known Mozart’s enjoying a period of cultural invigoration in Clarinet Quintet, written just 22 years Germany. (It may be interesting to note that earlier in 1789 in Vienna. However, despite the Grimm’s fairy tales were published not their temporal and geographical proximity, far away in Kassel the following year in 1812). the two works feel remarkably different. In In March he made a visit to Munich where he Weber’s quintet the clarinet takes the role met Baermann, a virtuoso clarinettist who of soloist with the strings often playing was famous for the warmth of his tone ‘which an accompanying role, allowing the player has not the slightest strain or shrillness in to show off a dazzling array of virtuosic it, both of which are so common among techniques. This contrasts with Mozart’s clarinettists’. quintet, in which the five voices tend to be engaged in a more equal dialogue, and The two became friends and in September tells us something about the clarinettists 1811 Weber started sketches of a quintet, London Mozart Players Classical Club | Michael Collins: Clarinet at the Clock Tower and presented three movements of the The third movement, a capricious Minuet Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart enters halfway through the first theme, work to Baermann for his birthday on and Trio, shows off the clarinet’s increased passing its second theme back to the cello: 13th April 1813. He did not complete the capacity for fast finger-work, and quick Clarinet Quintet in A fourth and final movement until two years leaps between high and low register: Major later. At the time Baermann had recently Opening of first movement on started playing a clarinet with ten keys the Arcanto Quartett recording. made by Griessling und Schlott, which i) Allegro opened up new technical possibilities. One Beginning of track three on the ii) Larghetto of these was greater ease with chromatic Carducci Quartet recording. iii) Menuetto – Trio I – Trio II Like Weber, Mozart was a master of scales, something which Weber exploited iv) Allegretto con variazioni vocal writing and operatic style, and this with virtuosic chromatic runs in the first The fourth and final movement feels is particularly apparent in the clarinet movement of the quintet but also with especially operatic, with an energised quintet. It was in fact written at the same particularly magical effect in the second string accompaniment and particularly Mozart’s clarinet quintet was also born time that he was working on Cosi fan tutti. movement: dramatic dialogue between the string out of a friendship, in this case with the In particular the second movement is an ‘chorus’ and the clarinet’s soprano voice. Viennese clarinettist Anton Stadler who, exquisite aria for the clarinet, supported along with his brother Johann, was a by muted strings and joined in a duet by 2:36 on track two on the member of the court orchestra in Vienna, Carducci Quartet recording. and an important figure in the growing 0:35 on track four on the acceptance of the clarinet as an orchestral Carducci Quartet recording. instrument. He was also a member of the Déjà vu? Here he also uses the expanded dynamic same Freemasons order as Mozart. Anton range of the clarinet, from fortissimo to Throughout the quintet, Weber’s wit and specialised in the lower registers and Lovers of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto pianissimo. The use of varied dynamics, humour shine through. There is an operatic experimented with a new instrument with will recognise some similar passages and swells within a note, also features at feel to the music, perhaps not surprising an even lower range which is now generally and phrases in the clarinet quintet. the very opening of the quintet with the given Weber’s strong connection to opera. known as the basset clarinet. This is the Both are written in A major and both clarinet’s first entry which grows from an His first professional post at the age of instrument for which Mozart wrote the were written for Anton Stadler, Mozart’s almost inaudible pianissimo to a singing 17 was the director at the Breslau Opera clarinet quintet, although it is now most friend and collaborator, to be played on mezzo forte before it takes over the melody and he later went on to be director of the often performed on the clarinet in A, just the instrument that Stadler invented, from the strings: Prague Opera and Dresden Opera where one semitone lower than a clarinet in B flat, the basset clarinet. Musically, the first he composed the successful operas Der but with a richer and mellower tone. theme of the first movement of both Freischutz, Euryanthe and Oberon. the concerto and the quintet begins Beginning of track one on the The premiere took place on the 22nd with a falling minor third, then the Carducci Quartet recording. December 1789, with Stadler playing second movements are in the same key the clarinet part and Mozart himself (D major) and are very similar despite playing the viola. This spirit of friendship different tempo markings. There is even permeates the work, and the clarinet is a direct quotation of two bars in the in true conversational dialogue with the second movement of the Quintet of the string instruments, weaving in and out of clarinet line in the Concerto’s second melodic and harmonic roles throughout movement. But then when the tune the piece. This is especially clear in the first is this good, why waste it on just one movement, in the way that the clarinet work? London Mozart Players Classical Club | Michael Collins: Clarinet at the Clock Tower the first violin in the reprise. And the last which he struggled with financial difficulties movement really feels like a chamber opera and the ill-health of his wife Constanze. As for a cast of five. It is a set of theme and H.C. Robbins Landon writes in Mozart: The variations, in which the characters talk, Golden Years: ‘Parts of [the Quintet] seem joke, dance and lament.