Guest
MOZART: The Last Concerto. LIVE at AMUZ Antwerp. Performed on period instruments. Vlad Weverbergh & Terra Nova Collective Much has been written and published about the historical context of Mozart’s concerto for basset clarinet and orchestra (KV 622) over the last decades, by C. Lawson, A. Rice, P. Poulin, P. Weston, N. Shackleton, G. Dazely, J. Kratochvil, D. Etteridge and amongst others. We can summarise the events that led to its composition as follows: Mozart had become friends with the Viennese clarinettist Anton Stadler (1753- 1812) during his time in Vienna; this friendship resulted in several splendid works for the instrument. There was a great deal of music that was composed for the clarinet during the 18th century, although no other composer under- stood the instrument as well as Mozart. Now, some 250 years later, these incomparable works are still amongst the finest ever composed for the clarinet. In this context we should also mention Theodor Lotz (1747-1792), the instrument maker to the Viennese court. A synergy developed between Lotz and Stadler that was very similar to the synergy between Mozart and the piano manu- facturer Stein: the instrument maker and the musician developed the instrument together and continually sought new horizons. Their collaboration led to a completely new form of clarinet in 1788; this was later to be named the basset clarinet. Despite the loss of Mozart’s autograph and of the original instrument, modern copies of the instrument are available today. We owe these in part to Eric Hoeprich, who built a replica of the basset clarinet in 1994 that was based upon an etching published as part of a newspaper article in which a concert of Stadler’s was announced. This etching dates from 1794 and was found in Riga; the characteristic form of the basset clarinet with its peculiar bowl at the bottom of the instrument is clearly to be seen in it. A basset clarinet is a clarinet with a lower extension, meaning that its lower range is two whole tones deeper than that of a normal clarinet. This greater range gives the composer room to create a completely different type of musical line for the solo instrument, enabling a natural sound- ing dialogue between a higher and a lower line. The basset clarinet can imitate a passage sung by a female and a male voice on its own, as it were. The operatic style is never far from Mozart’s final works: his melodic lines, even in instrumental works, are drenched with lyricism. It is because of this that we decided to include several arias by Mozart in this programme, although there are also valid historical reasons. The above-mentioned concert poster from 1794 mentioned the inclusion of an aria with obbligato clarinet from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, KV 621; this would have been either Sesto’s aria Parto, parto or Vitellia’s aria Non più di fiori, as both arias have an obbligato solo part, the first for basset horn and the second for basset clarinet. There are clear links between these arias and the concerto for basset clarinet KV 622; both arias were composed with Mozart’s clarinettist Anton Stadler in mind, who travelled with Mozart to Prague for the premiere of La clemenza di Tito. The process by which Non più di fiori came to be composed was described in detail by Robbins Landon, who also was able to show, thanks to Tyson’s analysis of the paper on which it was composed, that the second section of the aria was composed long before La clemenza di Tito had been begun and was only later inserted into the opera. This unusual aria, whose second theme greatly resembles the second theme from the clarinet concerto, has an obbligato solo line for basset horn. The basset horn, a deeper clarinet in F that originated in Bohemia, was also developed further by Theodor Lotz. Mozart composed a great deal of music for this unusual instrument, although it was always to remain on the further reaches of classical music. Various early 19th century sources such as the Zeitung für die elegante Welt and Das Dramaturgisches Wochenblatt confirm that the aria was also at times performed with an obbligato bassoon instead of a basset horn; a rare performance of this aria with bassoon instead of basset horn can be heard on
