Stream: RSNO Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto
Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto was his last instrumental work. First performed in Prague in mid-October 1791, it was written for the virtuoso clarinettist, Anton Stadler, and the relatively recently invented instrument, the basset clarinet, which lowered the range of the clarinet by three tones. Tonight’s conductor, Jorg Widmann, is not the first person to find in the work hints of the composer’s death less than two months later. There’s an autumnal feel in the writing, he suggests. It’s a tempting thought, but externally the evidence isn’t there. The Clarinet concerto is numbered K622, and ‘La Clemenza di Tito’, K621 written, at speed, for a commission by the Prague court the previous month, also features the basset clarinet, notably in Sesto’s ‘Parto, Parto’ and Vitellia’s ‘Non, Piu di Fiori’. The instrument tracks the singers in both arias in a dazzling obliggato with varied tempos and moods.
So, two works, innovative in their use of a new instrument, both completed to fulfil commissions in September and October 1791. Their premieres are almost coincidental with Mozart’s most popular success, the singspiel, ‘The Magic Flute’ K620, written earlier that summer, and first performed in Vienna on 30th September. Mozart’s ‘Requiem’, also a commission, unfinished on his death in December 1791 was K625. Out of interest I checked that K623 is the Little Masonic Cantata, commissioned for the opening of a new Masonic temple, delivered on time for a performance on 17th November, K624 is a manuscript of 24 keyboard pieces, possibly a tidying up exercise for delivery to a publisher. Both sound pretty upbeat to me! Mozart was 35, at the height of his powers, receiving and fulfilling commissions of all kinds. I’m not following Peter Shaeffer here, but simply assuming that Mozart died suddenly, as many young people did then. To our lasting delight he continued to write sublime music to the end!
There Widmann has it exactly right. In his spoken introduction he makes the bold claim that if Mozart had written nothing other than the slow movement of the Clarinet Concerto, he would be “immortal”. He speaks of the way the music breathes and the importance of the rests between the notes.
So how does he perform it? He is - in a change to the original programme - directing, as well as playing. He faces the orchestra, standing and moving at their level. (He uses the podium to conduct the Mendelssohn). The soloist in this work plays more than in many concertos, so after Widmann sets the beat, mainly with nods in the orchestral opening, much of the control of the orchestra is carried out discreetly by the leader, Sharon Roffman, seated at Widmann’s left shoulder. This is no mean feat, as Widmann makes considerable use of rubato in his playing, dwelling on the notes at the end of a phrase, and taking time to relish the echoing effect when notes in the lower register reply to a phrase in the upper register. It’s lovely to listen to, but I imagine, hard to keep up with! It’s all seems effortless, with Widmann moving around freely, almost dancing at times, and swinging the clarinet towards the orchestra in the style of a jazz player. Emily Nenniger, violinist, has played the concerto with Widmann around 20 times and says that it’s always different. So in this familiar music, there’s a wonderful sense of improvisation in this first movement. The fugal sections towards the end of the movement find the soloist almost setting a challenge to the orchestra with variety in tempo and alternating louder and softer phrases. It’s clearly relished by all the players.
And on to that slow movement. The first thing to notice is that it’s very slow. Often with familiar works, we have an accepted metronome setting in our brains, maybe from a favourite recording. I thought I’d heard the clarinet concerto often enough not to have this fixed speed in my head, but… Widmann spoke earlier about this wonderful “6 minutes of music” but his Adagio clocks in at 7 minutes 26 seconds. A random sample reveals this to be on the slow side from a funereal Andrew Marriner at 7minutes 44 seconds to the SCO’s positively galloping 5 minutes 22 seconds! And yet it works wonderfully. The movement begins with soloist, then when the orchestra picks up the theme, we have time to enjoy the flute parts and later the horn. Widmann said earlier that this “autumnal music” is still “Mozart with a smile” and the speed doesn’t equate with solemnity. It’s nice to see Principal Cellist, Aleksei Kiseliov smiling in enjoyment towards the end of the movement. The recapitulation of the theme when the orchestra plays pianissimo and Widmann exhibits extraordinary breath control is worth listening to several times. And maybe we do notice the spaces between the notes.
For the last movement Widmann sets a brisk tempo. The instrumental skills here include staccato, leaps between upper and lower notes and trills, and he’s happy to take these at a fair lick. Once again he likes to slow down to emphasise a phrase and draws our attention to the lyrical as well as the virtuosic. Widmann’s reading is an excitingly personal one.
After applause from the orchestra, Widmann is on the stage alone to introduce his solo, ‘Fantasie’, one of his own compositions. (The RSNO have got their money’s worth tonight!) He laughs as he explains that he wrote it when he was 19 and threw everything at it. It’s another 7 minutes where he shows the possibilities of the instrument, but it is as different as possible from Mozart’s Adagio. He describes it as a commedia del arte view of life, not to be taken too seriously, although he “sometimes falls out with the composer” as it’s one of the most difficult pieces for clarinet ever written. Musically it’s structured round repetitions of a dominant seventh chord, a sound reminiscent of my son’s childhood party-piece when he whistled and hummed at the same time. Exploiting the instrument’s sound possibilities is part of this piece, as are jazz motifs, and “conversations between a rude voice and a polite one.” It’s certainly playful!
The last piece tonight is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 5, ‘Reformation’. Composed in 1830 when he was 21, and first performed in 1832, he was unhappy with it, and it wasn’t published until after his death, so although it was his second symphony to be played, it was eventually numbered 5. 1830 was the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a key date in the Reformation when many of the German States renounced Catholicism and adopted Protestantism. Chris Hart tells us that Widmann has spent some time with the orchestra explaining this context. He’s also told them that the chorale by Martin Luther in the fourth movement is started by the flute as Luther played the flute. These comments by orchestra members on their relationship with the conductor in rehearsal is an interesting feature of these streamed concerts.
The first movement also has a Protestant theme, the six-note, ‘Dresden Amen’ which features in the strings in the opening Andante. But this quiet solemnity soon changes to Allegro con fuoco. The orchestra has expanded for the symphony, with a full complement of brass, and lots of activity for Paul Philbert MBE, Principal Timpanist! Widmann’s conducting from the podium is a contrast to his laconic direction of the Mozart. He’s energetic, noticeably exploring the dynamics of the music. Sometimes the crescendos are very gradual, at others the brass burst in loudly. The most dramatic moment is when the music halts abruptly on a fortissimo - the camera capturing Philbert stopping the drum reverberations with his hand – and the hush is broken by the quiet reiteration of ‘Dresden Amen’.
The second movement Allegro Vivace is in contrast light and joyous, partly a cheerful bucolic dance in which horns predominate and then a fairly sprightly waltz. The third movement is a gorgeous Andante, to which Widmann gives lots of room for the music to breathe. It’s mainly for strings, with some woodwind sections, and after a very brief flourish for drums and brass we’re being led, as promised, by Harry Winstanley, on solo flute, into the Chorale. The tune is picked up initially by other winds then by the full orchestra. It’s a spirited and full-blooded finale, in which the players and the conductor clearly enjoy the excitement of the music.
This has been an enjoyable concert, balancing familiar and less-familiar pieces in the standard repertory, with the surprise confection of Widmann’s ‘Fantasie’. Widmann, himself, an established conductor as well as clarinettist, conducting the RSNO for the first time, has clearly built up a rapport with the players, and definitely deserves a repeat invitation. I’ve also enjoyed hearing the thoughts of the conductor and the players on the music.
RSNO concerts are available to stream for £10 per concert.
