Mozart Clarinet Concerto

Welcome and show overview

0:00Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the classical music podcast. My name is Joshua Weilerstein, I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the Orquestra Nationale de Lille and the chief conductor of the Allborg Symphony. This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music. Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Paul, Valeria, Sean, Marn, Keetra,

0:33Corey, Melissa, Spencer, and all of my other Patreon sponsors for making Season 10 possible. If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com slash sticky notes podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It is greatly appreciated. Next week, I will be heading to Lille for two programs with the Orquestra Nationale de Lille in La Chèse-Dieu, which is this incredible cathedral in France. I really encourage you to look it up if

1:06you haven't ever heard of it before. The two programs include Music of Brahms, Schumann, Nurkbash, Sibelius, and Rachmaninoff. We're really excited to get our season kind of started with these two programs. For this week's episode, I want to thank Natalie for sponsoring the show on Patreon on a piece that I always have wanted to cover but never had gotten around to, Mozart's indescribable clarinet concerto. Really hope you enjoy it.

Context and mysteries of the concerto

1:34When it comes to a piece like the Mozart clarinet concerto, a few words or phrases regularly come up. The concerto is described as, quote, mellow, or Mozart's, quote, swan song, but most often it is described as perfect. Such a perfect piece as Mozart's clarinet concerto must have been hugely

2:10popular during Mozart's lifetime, right? It must have been played all over by all the virtuoso clarinetists of the day. Well, that is not even close to the case. At the age of 35, Mozart was kind of old news in the economically depressed, repressed, and censored city of Vienna in 1790. There were very few concerts during this period, and Mozart's popularity had waned severely. The clarinet concerto, one of a wealth of brilliant, and yes, I think perfect, pieces Mozart wrote in the final year of

2:44his life, was performed once by the man who Mozart wrote it for, Anton Stadler, before Mozart's death. But the location and the program of that concert is forgotten. The manuscript of the concerto is lost, which means we actually don't know a lot about it, considering it wasn't actually written for the standard clarinet, but a basset clarinet, and we'll get to that later. The piece was written just about two months before Mozart's death, and was his last completed work, though there's absolutely no

3:17evidence that Mozart knew he was dying when he wrote it. All in all, there's actually a lot of mystery surrounding this perfect piece, and yet, when we hear the luminous music that Mozart wrote, all of it fades away. There is truly a kind of perfection to this music, a golden quality. There is no clarinet concerto today that is performed more often or that is more recorded, and it remains a perennial favorite for clarinetists and orchestras around the world.

3:47Today on this Patreon-sponsored episode, we'll talk about all these mysteries surrounding this concerto, which defies any description. All this and more is coming right up on Sticky Notes.

Anton Stadler and the basset clarinet

4:17There are a few important characters in the story of this concerto that we need to cover before we get into the music itself. The first is Anton Stadler, a clarinetist of Mozart's time, and the man who inspired not only the clarinet concerto, but also Mozart's equally gorgeous clarinet quintet. Stadler was a big name in Vienna and garnered some pretty extravagant praise from critics.

4:49Here's one example from the critic Johann Friedrich Schinck, who wrote, quote, My thanks to you, noble virtuoso, never have I heard the like of what you contrive with your instrument. Never should I have imagined that a clarinet might be capable of imitating the human voice as deceptively faithfully as it was imitated by you. Verily, your instrument has so soft and so lovely a tone that none can resist it who has a heart, and I have one, dear virtuoso. Let me thank

5:20you. There's nothing on the record that I could find of Mozart actually speaking about Stadler's playing, but the proof is in the music that he wrote for him. Now, Stadler himself was not an easy guy to get along with, and most of Mozart's inner circle hated him. Mozart's sister-in-law, Sophie Heibel, wrote that Stadler was just another one of Mozart's, quote, false friends, secret bloodsuckers, and worthless persons who served only to amuse him at the table

5:50and intercourse with whom injured his reputation. Stadler also took money from Mozart, even though Mozart was, of course, in severe debt, and he was also responsible for a lie about the clarinets that he played, which brings us to our second important character when it comes to this concerto, the Basset clarinet. The Basset clarinet is not a bass clarinet, and I promise that this is worth knowing about because it really shows us just how much is lost to history, and how presumptuous we can be if we

6:21try to play music, quote, how it was heard at the time. The Basset clarinet that Anton Stadler used, and which Mozart wrote the concerto for, was invented by Theodore Laws. But Stadler claimed after Laws' early death that Stadler himself had invented it. A pretty low thing to do. Here's the thing about the Laws' Basset clarinet. Not a single one survives to this day. And as I said, neither does the manuscript to Mozart's clarinet concerto. The first editions of the piece were arranged and

6:53adjusted for a regular old A clarinet, and so we don't actually know a whole lot about the Basset clarinet that Stadler used to perform the piece. There is a lot of debate about the Basset clarinet, but essentially it was a clarinet that had the ability to play a few pitches that were lower than on the regular clarinet. This has led to many assumptions, rearrangements, and conjectures about which notes in the Mozart concerto are meant to be played with those extra few lower pitches, or where Mozart went back up an octave to the normal range of the A clarinet. This might seem

7:29really esoteric, but I think it's important to know about. Clarinetists interested in historical performance practice often play this piece on replica Basset clarinets that attempt to recreate the sound of the Lod's clarinet, and it's actually really interesting to hear that deep register. With that said, unless you're really interested in hearing those extra notes, or if you're really into historical performance practice, you won't necessarily notice a difference when you're listening to this piece. So, why bring it up? Well, one, because as I always say, I'm a nerd. But two,

8:05because this is a huge debate in the classical music world about quote-unquote historical performance practice versus modernity in playing. The idea of the HP movement, as it is called, is to get as close to the authentic conditions of those first performances to get the music to essentially sound as it did in Mozart's time, for example, before instruments evolved, sound expectations changed, halls changed, and even before pitch started steadily rising. This is a fascinating movement that has

8:39been wonderfully illuminating for all performers. My only objection to it as a performer myself is when it is portrayed as if it is a movement of pure authenticity, because no matter how much research is done, the reality is that the Lod's Basset clarinet might never be recreated accurately, and the manuscript of this concerto might never be found. So, whatever we are doing can't possibly be truly authentic. In a way, I find this quite freeing as a performer. I do try to get as close to what I think the composer would have

9:13wanted in my performances. But I also think that having the humility to know that this is actually impossible in practice can be quite freeing to the performer and allow for more creative approaches. Okay, sermon on performance practice concluded. Let me add just one more thing about the clarinet itself.

9:54Mozart loved the clarinet, and especially its middle register, something that Stadler was famous for. But the clarinet was just becoming a regular member of the orchestra during Mozart's lifetime. And since it's a ubiquitous member of the orchestral family today, I wanted to point out that this instrument was still relatively new. Its predecessor was called the Chalumo, which sounds like this. There is a debate over when the first actual clarinet concerto was written. But there weren't very

10:47many, that's for sure, before Mozart's time. During Mozart's lifetime, the popularity of the genre of the clarinet concerto exploded. But almost all these works are completely forgotten today, all except for Mozart's, which remains so vivid in our imaginations and represents so many things that I personally love about the clarinet. Let's get into the piece now that we've got all the elements in place. It's written

First movement exposition

11:13in A major, the perfect key for the clarinet in A, and begins with a perfectly Mozartian, gently flowing melody. Not to sound like Amadeus here, but there's not much to this theme. The accompaniment is as simple

11:44as it gets, with a few measures of eighth notes bouncing away below the theme. It's really in the fourth measure, that Mozart does something remarkable with this music. He sets us up in the first three bars with something very stable.

12:04And then he starts to move with that accompaniment, which creates harmonic movement, which creates the momentum we need to get to the end of the phrase and to wrap it up into a neat package. When people talk about perfection in Mozart, I think this is what they're referring to. Perfection of melody, harmony, and most importantly, proportion. The second phrase feels like a repeat, but Mozart already begins to develop the theme in terms of dynamic contrast. And then a cascading version of the

12:35harmonically moving section, which takes us to a characteristically jaunty idea that really exemplifies just how cheerful this music is. This is followed by runs of 16th notes, which take us to the end of this first section. lm lm lm

13:06¶¶ Here's another reason why I think actually Mozart is underrated, even though he is so beloved.

13:42Mozart never really introduces a second theme here. Instead, he takes the original opening idea and keeps on evolving it, almost like Beethoven would do with his motivic cells. In this next iteration, Mozart overlaps the idea in the strings, creating a contemplative moment that also includes some really touching harmonic moves. I mentioned 7ths and 9ths and 11ths and 13ths in my episode about the poem of Ecstasy a couple of weeks ago.

14:29And while this music couldn't be any more different than Scriabin, it's a nice reminder that 7th chords can do a lot also in Mozart. Listen to this moment.

14:44That moment of hesitation on a 7th chord actually allows Mozart to take us to his next evolution of the motivic idea, a proud and majestic version that is punctuated by rushing 16th notes. And the music keeps evolving. Mozart had themes just pouring out of him, one after another.

15:15And instead of saving them, he would just let them pour out, confident that another one would come. A little scale takes us to the end of this orchestral introduction, which Mozart teases out in a really playful way. The stage is now set for the entrance of the clarinet,

15:52but this shows us something a bit different from the big, grand, romantic-era concerti, where composers like Beethoven, Brahms, and others slightly modified traditional sonata form, which includes an exposition with two themes, a development where those two themes are developed and moved around and manipulated, and then a recapitulation where the two themes come back, and then followed, usually, by a coda where everything is summed up. In those big, romantic concerti, the composers created a double exposition.

16:24The orchestra would play both themes of the sonata form exposition, and then the soloist would replay those themes, but ornament them, comment on them, and sometimes go away, and then come back to them. Here, Mozart only introduces his first theme in the introduction, and then leaves the second theme solely for the clarinet. We'll get to that in a moment, as now it's time to hear the clarinet theme, played here by the inimitable Martin Frist. PIANO PLAYS

16:55ORGAN PLAYS

17:25As you can hear, you can almost superimpose the opening introduction here onto this music, with the clarinet riding over the top, but not always. When the clarinet plays this music, Mozart often inflects it with little excursions to the minor key, which add pathos and intensity to this music, almost like an operatic aria.

17:55Now we head towards the second theme, and it becomes clearer why Mozart included those minor key diversions. The music becomes truly operatic for a moment, as the clarinet sings out a long note over a portentous accompaniment. But then in one of those magical Mozart moments, he finds a way to move off of this moment of doubt,

18:40and into C major, not a key that one normally associates with A major. This allows Mozart to dream for a moment, and the clarinet plays one of the most beautiful melodies in the piece, taking us all away. But the drama doesn't go away, as the orchestra becomes quite agitated underneath 16th notes from the clarinet.

19:13And we end up in a very strange harmonic place, a B major chord, which is really out of place in A major. Where is Mozart going? Well, in a conventional sonata form movement, he would have either ended up in the parallel minor, A minor, which we actually started the second theme in, or in E major, the dominant key. Remember all that talk about dominance two weeks ago? Well, here Mozart is arriving on the dominant of the dominant. And actually, that's exactly what happens here, as all that drama was put in place to set up an arrival into E major.

19:50We're back where we need to be, but in typical Mozart fashion, he makes things just interesting enough harmonically to please connoisseurs, while writing one ineffable melody after another that overwhelms us with beauty. We're back where we need to be, but in a very strange way.

20:32But these diversions into distant keys don't end. Mozart now essentially adds a new theme, but now in the parallel minor of E major, C sharp minor. This is really something new, and it again explores the more tragic range of the clarinet. piano plays softly

21:22This section, as if truly in doubt, ends on a pause, where traditionally a clarinetist plays a short joining phrase that allows us to go to the next section. The canons from the orchestral introduction return, and we head towards the end of the exposition back in that cheery mood, but now it's been colored by those excursions into minor keys.

21:52ORCHESTRA PLAYS

22:22The development orchestral tutti, where the orchestra plays without the soloist,

First movement development

22:52is in E major, and is a relative repeat of the opening introduction. It sets the stage for the clarinetist to continue exploring the more emotional side of this music. It's a fascinating setup, and it's one that is echoed by many other concerti. The orchestra plays the more enthusiastic and simple music, and the soloist explores what's underneath. But at first, the clarinet is just as content as the orchestra, as it plays in beautiful lockstep with the first violins, and then goes off on a tangent of gently circling 16th notes. It seems like nothing could threaten

23:28this kind of peace, harmony, and satisfaction. But just like that, Mozart uses the entire range of the clarinet to sink into the depths of the

24:00emotions of this music, and it even inspires the orchestra to dramatically comment on what just happened. This takes us into section two of the development, where Mozart really is going to do that traditional thing of looking at the darker side of the music. We hear a heart-stopping moment where the clarinet and orchestra trade quarter notes, a rare moment of a

24:39complete ceasing of motion in this movement. And then that magical dream music from the exposition emerges. Except this time, it slowly is transformed into a minor key, and what is luminous and glowing becomes suddenly agitated, as if trying to find its way home. ORCHESTRA PLAYS ORCHESTRA PLAYS

25:37Those quarter notes return after that outburst, but this time the clarinet plays long notes over the top of them, once again exploring the upper and lower range of the instrument, as the orchestra finally lands on the dominant chord of F-sharp minor, a dramatic and stormy key which Mozart fully exploits. This section reminds me at times of Baroque music, with the cellos hanging over the

26:34downbeats with those notes that we call suspensions, because they seem to truly suspend harmonic resolution. This all while the violins accompany them with slightly threatening eighth notes. It all has a bit of a flavor of Bach, but the result of all this is all Mozart. As this music hints at a major key, Mozart takes full advantage, wrenching the key into D major and casting aside all of this doubt. Instead, we are ready to head towards the recapitulation.

27:04And that's exactly where we end up. With an ingenious little harmonic move, Mozart ends up in A major, and we're home.

27:36But as always with Mozart, his recapitulations aren't quite the same as his expositions. Listen now and see if you can catch any of the tricks. . . .

28:11The rest of the movement doesn't feature any new material, just Mozart reveling in what he has created, and allowing the clarinet to exploit the whole range of what was essentially a new toy for Mozart, taking us to the end of this glorious, if slightly inflected with melancholy, movement.

The second movement

28:41What is there to say about the second movement? Perhaps let's start with the basics. It's in ABA form, meaning that we hear the main theme twice, with a secondary theme sandwiched in

29:14between. It's in D major, and it begins not with an introduction, but with the solo clarinet right away. But all this, all the information I could ever give you about this music, becomes irrelevant the moment you hear this theme. Thank you. Thank you.

30:05That never does anything but move between the root of D major and one other completely conventional and expected chord, and which is accompanied by literally the most simple accompaniment possible, long notes and oscillating eighth notes. If I could tell you why it was so beautiful, I'd be better at what I do, because I can't. It's just ineffable. If someone said, point to an example of why music can't be talked about, I might point them to this melody, which is then taken up by the orchestra. It's just in the orchestra. This is in the orchestra.

30:36This is in the orchestra. This is in the orchestra. ORGAN PLAYS

31:09Now that both the clarinet and the orchestra have enjoyed this theme, they begin a touching dialogue, with each harmonic shift underneath adding more sweet sorrow to this music. As I've mentioned many times with Mozart, he was writing music at a time where major key slow music could just as easily be tragic as it was ecstatic.

31:41To me, there is an element, perhaps, of tragedy in this, though I certainly could be wrong. ORGAN PLAYS ORGAN PLAYS ORGAN PLAYS This is as simple as it gets.

32:28Soloist introduces a theme, orchestra responds. Soloist introduces a new idea, orchestra responds. And yet the ineffability just continues to grow. This music feels like an unbroken, sublime line. Like a world that has entered a flow state, leaving everything behind. The B section is slightly more improvisatory, allowing Mozart to once again take a long look at the lower end of the clarinet register,

33:15including some of those notes that exploit the range of the basset clarinet. Here's an example of that. This B section wanders in a beautiful way,

33:48and it's a great contrast to the closed loop that was that opening melody. What I find fascinating about this B section as well is that, unlike in the first movement, and by the way in the third movement to come, Mozart never explores darker elements like minor keys in this music. He is content to let the music stay in this elevated state, which takes us right back into the A section again, usually featuring a cadenza from the clarinetist, where they play completely alone. Piano solo

34:34project I love you.

35:08Another rare feature here in this recapitulation of the A-theme, Mozart doesn't vary it very much, if at all. That is very not-on-brand for Mozart, who loved changing things around in his recapitulations. But here, simplicity seems to rule over everything else.

35:38The final minute of the movement becomes progressively more peaceful and serene, with the clarinet allowed to show off the gentlest and most tender kind of virtuosity. ¶¶

36:09Now, I deliberately didn't mention that note, that heart-stopping note, because it comes as such an intended surprise. That moment of extra tenderness always stops me in my tracks,

36:42even though I've conducted this piece many times. Somehow, Mozart lulls you into a complete sense of flow, and then just for a moment puts that tinge of doubt into you. It is pushed aside, but it lingers there. A reminder that this movement's serenity has no words attached.

Third movement rondo form

37:01On the surface, the third movement's serenity has no words attached. This movement sounds just like any cheerful Mozart rondo,

37:34a form where the theme keeps coming back, with varying sections in between.

37:48But listen to the way both phrases end. Mozart references F-sharp minor repeatedly. H.C. Robbins Landon, a legendary musicologist, wrote that this movement reminded him of a line from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. The heart dances, but not for joy. That's not to say that this music is not sincere and warm, or even heartwarming.

38:32It's just to say that it's not so simple, and those minor key inflections remind us a bit of the first movement. Even though the first and third movements both are ostensibly fast, it's rare that we get a feeling of speed or virtuosity or even huge excitement. Everything is integrated into this serene, yet just slightly melancholy character. The A section does end with some of the most exciting music of the piece. Though again, it's not a Beethovenian kind of grab-you-by-the-neck excitement.

39:03It's more integrated and in control than that. The B section, the first varying idea in the movement, begins with a very lyrical theme, and one that shows off the low range of the clarinet. These perfectly closed loops lead to a surprise,

39:40and a return of that melancholy character. But just like in the other movements, Mozart has the clarinetist swerve us away from those melancholy feelings and arrive at what truly is the most cheerful music of the piece so far. These contrasts and the seamless way Mozart writes them are so spectacular because they don't feel shocking, they just feel inevitable. The B section, the B section,

40:33ends with another hint of melancholy and even of agitation. The music becomes much more chromatic, meaning it's moving by half-steps, and the harmonies much less open than they were before. It's Mozart squeezing the lemon dry before finding his way back to the A theme. The B section, the B section, the B section, is a of the B section, and the B section,

41:07with a little bit of melancholy and even of a remplacer. VIOLIN PLAYS

41:38This brings me to a point about the form. This movement isn't strictly a rondo. It's a kind of hybrid of rondo and sonata form, which allows Mozart to return back to his second theme and also to slightly develop the A music rather than just repeat it all the time. This gives him the chance to get a little bit more agitation and drama in the A music.

42:08Which we hear in the orchestra as they break off from the main tune for a dramatic working out of the theme's ideas. And it's actually all a setup for the C music.

42:40In a normal sonata form development, we would have heard a much longer and more involved working out of the A theme's ideas. But Mozart in this hybrid form just uses that development-like music to get to the C theme, the second varying music in the rondo. And we're back to drama as the key is F sharp minor again, and the clarinet jumps all over the instrument. This is a true dramatic aria in clarinet concerto form. Thank you.

43:36And then, as if to remind us subconsciously of the second movement, Mozart pivots the D major for a joyful and truly cheerful virtuosic display from the clarinet. It also features one of those Mozart sequences that just makes me smile every time I hear

44:12Mozart really surpasses himself in this next moment, as he brings back the A-theme all of a sudden. Is this a full statement of it? Not a chance. It's more of a transition, and that transition is full of the crunchiest and most dissonant

44:45harmonies in the whole piece. Mozart is using this chord, which is just extraordinary in the context of the piece. What is his plan here? Why is he using this? To me, it's once again a kind of squeeze of the harmony that is meant to make the eventual resolution to A major more satisfying.

45:17It's like squeezing through a small hole in a cave in order to pop out the other side. The satisfaction is almost more due to the effort involved. And that's exactly what happens here as Mozart squeezes the harmony into a return of that beautiful lyrical, lyrical, B-theme. But as always, Mozart can't leave his themes alone. And he works out this B-theme in a glorious way, with one magical harmonic transformation

46:07after the other. What

46:38is this music? Is it as serene as it seems? Is it unclouded by melancholy?

47:08And as we head towards the end of the piece, we hear the A music now in its entirety before moving to the coda. In the coda, Mozart really allows the clarinet to have a truly virtuosic point of view, as the orchestra seems to urge it on over and over again. If there has been a slight lack of playful excitement in the piece so far, it is finally present here, as everyone is egging each other on, creating more and more fizzing excitement and energy. And with one final statement of the main theme and a truly heartwarming crescendo,

47:43Mozart takes us to the end of this 30 minutes of perfection. ORCHESTRA PLAYS ORCHESTRA PLAYS

Final thoughts on Mozart's legacy

48:14As this is the last piece Mozart ever completed, its character and those melancholy moments have invited huge amounts of speculation about the inner character of the piece. It has been described as his swan song, his acceptance of his fate, etc.

48:47But the thing is, Mozart wasn't dying when he wrote this piece, and in fact he had no inkling that it would be his final piece. Mozart's death a few months later was a surprise to all, and not the result of some long decline. With that said, I do think this piece, and a lot of the pieces Mozart wrote in his final years, show a new kind of serenity that he hadn't had in his earlier music. But to me, that just means that Mozart had entered a new phase of composition, not that he was winding things down.

49:19It's a cliché to ask what would Mozart have written if he had lived past the age of 35. But as I surpass the ages of these great composers who died young, like Schubert, 31, Mendelssohn, 38, and many others, it becomes almost an existential question. How is it possible that works of such great maturity were created by such young people, and what would it have boded for their futures? Of course, there is a joy and kind of sweet melancholy in not knowing that answer.

49:52What we have here with us is what we have to enjoy, and the Mozart Clarinet Concerto is one of those pearls of the Western classical music canon, and of the world, and it always will be. Thanks to Natalie for sponsoring today's show on Patreon, and thank you so much for listening to Sticky Notes today. We'll have some more exciting stuff for you in a couple of weeks, so don't miss our next episode. If you like what you heard today, please feel free to rate and review the show on Apple

50:24Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps the show gain more visibility. And please send any questions to stickynotespodcast at gmail.com, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. As always, this episode was mixed by Charlie Cozella, so a huge thank you to him. If you would like to support the podcast monetarily, just head over to patreon.com slash stickynotespodcast. Thanks, and I'll talk to you again after a while.

50:57And I'll talk to you again after a while.

51:27Thanks, and I'll talk to you again after a while.