Weber Clarinet Concertino
Weber Clarinet Concertino Program Notes
Carl Maria von Weber was an innovator at the beginning of the Romantic era, an industrious and serious musician. His father had believed young Carl to be another child prodigy like Mozart, which led to a childhood of travel. Clearly he was very talented, composing operas and taking on music director positions while still a teenager. Actually, Weber and Mozart were connected by marriage – Weber’s father’s older half-brother was the father of Mozart’s wife Constanze. (Sharing one grandparent, this makes Carl Maria and Constanze half-cousins.) Touring in 1811, Weber met clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann, a virtuoso member of the orchestra in Munich, and composed this Concertino. It was so successful that theKing (Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria) immediately commissioned another two concertos. Other members of the orchestra requested works for their instruments, and the resulting Bassoon concerto remains a staple of the repertoire. Weber’s other innovations in a new, dramatic style of German opera provided inspiration to Wagner. (Also, it would be King Maximilian Joseph’s great-grandson, King Ludwig II, who bankrolled Wagner’s Bayreuth Festspielhaus.) Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber Born: November 1786, Eutin, Germany Died: June 5, 1826, London, United KingdomThe Concertino in E-flat major, Op. 26 is a single-movement showpiece for clarinet and orchestra by Carl Maria von Weber, written to display the full range and versatility of the clarinet as a solo instrument. It is one of the most charming and brilliantly effective pieces in the clarinet repertoire.
Weber composed the Concertino in a single night in 1811 for the virtuoso clarinetist Heinrich Baermann, and it was premiered the following day in Munich with immediate success. King Maximilian I of Bavaria was so delighted he immediately commissioned two full clarinet concertos.
A typical performance lasts approximately 8 to 10 minutes.
The work moves through several contrasting sections — a slow, lyrical introduction, a theme and variations, and a lively finale — all designed to show off the clarinet's ability to sing, whisper, and dazzle with equal ease. Listen for the moments of extreme high and low register that demonstrate the instrument's remarkable range.
Weber's friendship with Heinrich Baermann inspired some of the finest music ever written for the clarinet, including two concertos and the Concertino composed in 1811. Brahms was so moved when he heard a similar collaboration between a composer and a great clarinetist that it inspired him to write his own late clarinet works.
