Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
To call Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s premature death at the young age of 35 untimely would be a tragic understatement; for the musicologist H.C. Robbins Landon, it was no less than “the greatest tragedy in the history of music” that cut short the composer’s life just as he was on the threshold of a magical new style. Finished just two months before his death, the Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 was Mozart’s last major completed work, and thus is conventionally regarded as his swan song. But considered in the context of the entirely new language that emerged in Mozart’s other twilight works (the Concerto shares with The Magic Flute a remarkable blend of simplicity and gravitas), the Clarinet Concerto represents as much a new beginning, albeit tragically curtailed, as a final destination. Originally conceived for the basset clarinet and its extended low range, the Clarinet Concerto signifies a continuation of Mozart’s lifelong penchant for darker timbres (in chamber music settings he much preferred playing the viola to the violin). This mellow quality that Mozart achieves in sonority is also reflected in the general character of the piece, which concentrates less on virtuosic passagework (solo cadenzas are conspicuously absent) and more on long-breathed melody and operatic registral contrast. The first movement Allegro opens joyously before introducing striking forays into minor keys that Mozart will continue to probe for the rest of the piece. The delicate and breathtaking Adagio movement somehow fuses absolute peace and sublime beauty with just a tinge of melancholy, which finds expression near the end of the movement in a time-stopping deceptive cadence poignantly punctuated by silence. The buoyant Rondo finale swirls through characters and keys with Mozart’s quintessential quicksilver grace before spilling over into a glorious finish.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for Chamber Music Northwest
To call Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s premature death at the young age of 35 untimely would be a tragic understatement; for the musicologist H.C. Robbins Landon, it was no less than “the greatest tragedy in the history of music” that cut short the composer’s life just as he was on the threshold of a magical new style. Finished just two months before his death, the Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 was Mozart’s last major completed work, and thus is conventionally regarded as his swan song. But considered in the context of the entirely new language that emerged in Mozart’s other twilight works (the Concerto shares with The Magic Flute a remarkable blend of simplicity and gravitas), the Clarinet Concerto represents as much a new beginning, albeit tragically curtailed, as a final destination. Originally conceived for the basset clarinet and its extended low range, the Clarinet Concerto signifies a continuation of Mozart’s lifelong penchant for darker timbres (in chamber music settings he much preferred playing the viola to the violin). This mellow quality that Mozart achieves in sonority is also reflected in the general character of the piece, which concentrates less on virtuosic passagework (solo cadenzas are conspicuously absent) and more on long-breathed melody and operatic registral contrast. The first movement Allegro opens joyously before introducing striking forays into minor keys that Mozart will continue to probe for the rest of the piece. The delicate and breathtaking Adagio movement somehow fuses absolute peace and sublime beauty with just a tinge of melancholy, which finds expression near the end of the movement in a time-stopping deceptive cadence poignantly punctuated by silence. The buoyant Rondo finale swirls through characters and keys with Mozart’s quintessential quicksilver grace before spilling over into a glorious finish.
© Graeme Steele Johnson for Chamber Music Northwest