Allegro in B-flat major for Clarinet and String Quartet, K. 516c
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's late love affair with the clarinet is immortalized by the handful of masterpieces he left behind for the instrument, but plagued by a tattered paper trail; the sublime Clarinet Quintet, K. 581 and Clarinet Concerto, K. 622 are both missing their autographs, and only 93 bars remain of the Allegro in B-flat major for Clarinet and String Quartet, K. 516c. The present fragment may well have been longer, and perhaps even torn from a finished movement, as suggested by the completeness of the extant portion. Mozart’s other fragmentary autographs are dotted with blank spaces in the accompanying voices to be filled in later, which Robert Levin explains as the master’s practice of “creat[ing] in his head, not on paper.” Nevertheless, 93 measures is enough to provide a complete exposition before stopping short three measures into the development — a not inconsequential window into the heartbeat of the movement, and for the astute Robert Levin, sufficient momentum to devise a faithful and imaginative completion. Mozart’s share of the compositional labor likely dates from 1787, the same year that also bore Don Giovanni as well as the two Viola Quintets in C Major and G Minor, and the clarinet quintet fragment shares with with those contemporaneous works the proto-Romantic harmonic daring of a mature Mozart. But unlike the inconsolable G minor Viola Quintet, this buoyant, sun-specked Allegro oozes a degree of wonder and levity rare even for Mozart’s overall joyous clarinet catalog.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for Chamber Music Northwest
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's late love affair with the clarinet is immortalized by the handful of masterpieces he left behind for the instrument, but plagued by a tattered paper trail; the sublime Clarinet Quintet, K. 581 and Clarinet Concerto, K. 622 are both missing their autographs, and only 93 bars remain of the Allegro in B-flat major for Clarinet and String Quartet, K. 516c. The present fragment may well have been longer, and perhaps even torn from a finished movement, as suggested by the completeness of the extant portion. Mozart’s other fragmentary autographs are dotted with blank spaces in the accompanying voices to be filled in later, which Robert Levin explains as the master’s practice of “creat[ing] in his head, not on paper.” Nevertheless, 93 measures is enough to provide a complete exposition before stopping short three measures into the development — a not inconsequential window into the heartbeat of the movement, and for the astute Robert Levin, sufficient momentum to devise a faithful and imaginative completion. Mozart’s share of the compositional labor likely dates from 1787, the same year that also bore Don Giovanni as well as the two Viola Quintets in C Major and G Minor, and the clarinet quintet fragment shares with with those contemporaneous works the proto-Romantic harmonic daring of a mature Mozart. But unlike the inconsolable G minor Viola Quintet, this buoyant, sun-specked Allegro oozes a degree of wonder and levity rare even for Mozart’s overall joyous clarinet catalog.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for Chamber Music Northwest