Küffner: Introduction, Theme, and Variations for Clarinet and Strings in B-flat major
The fruits of Carl Maria von Weber’s well-documented relationship with the clarinetist Heinrich Baermann include several operatic, virtuosic works for the instrument in chamber and concerto genres. Thus, it is understandable that the Introduction, Theme, and Variations for Clarinet and Strings in B-flat Major, a work of questionable authorship whose elysian, Mozartian aria prefaces a buoyant theme and its spry elaborations, has traditionally been attributed to Weber. But recent scholarship points instead to Weber’s contemporary and compatriot Joseph Küffner, a composer known mostly for his guitar music, as the work’s architect.
The variations become progressively more acrobatic while remaining faithful to the jocular, if naïve, character of the theme. The rhythmic activity snowballs until a surprisingly sincere G minor Adagio arrests the blissfully ignorant chugging along, and seems a melancholic look at the untroubled aria of the introduction. The clarinet gets lost in a soliloquy before having an abrupt change of heart and diving headlong into the jubilant triplets of the sixth variation. A final Allegro assai interrupts this last variation mid-sentence as the strings egg on the agile clarinet dancing above them.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for Chamber Music Northwest
The fruits of Carl Maria von Weber’s well-documented relationship with the clarinetist Heinrich Baermann include several operatic, virtuosic works for the instrument in chamber and concerto genres. Thus, it is understandable that the Introduction, Theme, and Variations for Clarinet and Strings in B-flat Major, a work of questionable authorship whose elysian, Mozartian aria prefaces a buoyant theme and its spry elaborations, has traditionally been attributed to Weber. But recent scholarship points instead to Weber’s contemporary and compatriot Joseph Küffner, a composer known mostly for his guitar music, as the work’s architect.
The variations become progressively more acrobatic while remaining faithful to the jocular, if naïve, character of the theme. The rhythmic activity snowballs until a surprisingly sincere G minor Adagio arrests the blissfully ignorant chugging along, and seems a melancholic look at the untroubled aria of the introduction. The clarinet gets lost in a soliloquy before having an abrupt change of heart and diving headlong into the jubilant triplets of the sixth variation. A final Allegro assai interrupts this last variation mid-sentence as the strings egg on the agile clarinet dancing above them.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for Chamber Music Northwest