Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622, Op. 57, No. 2 (1791/2013)

Program Notes:

I was first exposed to the Mozart clarinet concerto in high school. My teacher told me that I’d work on it again in college, but that it would be good to get a head start on it since it’s a piece that “every clarinetist needs to know”. Indeed, as I began my time at Eastman, it became quickly apparent that every clarinet audition opens with “Mozart Clarinet Concerto – exposition”. It’s a nice piece, sure, but this can get to be a bit of a drag. At first, I approached this fact of life with wry humor, as just part of the way the world works. As the years went on, however, I’ve become more and more irritated about its inclusion in orchestral auditions – and about the process of orchestral auditions in general – to the point of severe doubt and disillusionment this year. However, this is perhaps not the ideal space to polemicize about the validity of the orchestral audition process, so we’ll leave that for now.

Although Mozart's clarinet concerto is one of his latest and most revered works (at least, that's my impression as a clarinetist!), the modern way of approaching it is often very prescribed and rigid, in stark contast to how it would have been expected to be performed in its day. Too often, we as clarinetists spend time in the practice room with our tuners and metronomes making sure every note is perfect for auditions and not really getting to experience the piece as a whole. Playing with piano is alright, but really not the same effect as a full orchestra - and full orchestras are hard to come by. Although clarinet choirs aren't exactly common either, if even a few more clarinetists get to play Mozart outside the practice room, it will be well worth it!

Although the original manuscript is lost (likely pawned off by Anton Stadler, the premiere soloist, to settle his debts), this arrangement resembles the original as much as modern scholarship allows - except, of course, substituting clarinet choir for orchestra! Recent scholarship in the past few decades has encouraged performance on the basset clarinet - an A clarinet with an extension allowing it to play four half-steps lower than a normal clarinet. Although the original part is lost, the part is here reconstructed based both on historical evidence and conjecture.