ExclusiveMozart: Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622 - II. Adagio 莫札特：A大調單簧管協奏曲K. 622 - 第二樂章 慢板

【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 - II. Adagio. This beautiful piece was played by Bruce Edwards. It has Creative Commons license and is provided through www.musopen.org.

"A concerto for the clarinet, for Mr Stadler the Elder". This is Mozart's autograph entry in his catalogue of works, announcing the completion of his Clarinet Concerto between late September and mid-November 1791. When he wrote this epoch-making work, the genre was no longer in its infancy. Classical "minor masters" such as Munich's Joseph Michl and Mannheim's Carl Stamitz had already written rewarding clarinet concertos, and the clarinet had been used in concert arias since 1775. Mozart, however, began work on his concerto under two special circumstances: He wrote it for Anton Stadler, the Viennese clarinettist whose soft tone and infinite shadings had given the instrument its soul, and he composed it for a low clarinet. In the early years of solo clarinet literature, the high notes in the treble dominated, whereas Mozart exploited the instrument's full range, favouring the sonorous alto and tenor registers. One need only think of the solos for clarinet and basset horn in the Clemenza di Tito, also composed for Stadler, to realise the extent to which Mozart transformed the clarinet into an idealised singing voice, a wonderfully rich 'mezzo-soprano'.

A draft of the first movement of the Clarinet Concerto in G major for basset horn and orchestra survives. Mozart apparently began the piece as early as 1789 for the low clarinet in G or F invented in Augsburg, the effects of which he had been able to try out with his friend Stadler on several evenings in Vienna. However, for reasons that cannot be reconstructed, Mozart and Stadler later decided in favour of a new version in A major for the A clarinet, albeit with additional low notes, a so-called "basset clarinet". Stadler obviously wanted to use Mozart's concerto to promote this brand-new instrument, which he favoured, in Vienna, and to enjoy the sensation of the low notes to the full. With his "Ribislgesicht" (Mozart's nickname for his friend), Stadler entered the concert hall and played the new concerto and the special instrument, "his" basset clarinet, at a Viennese academy in the spring of 1791.

Mozart's autograph of the concerto has been lost, allegedly in a music case that Stadler had left behind on a journey, which also contained the autograph of Mozart's clarinet quintet. The concerto was first printed for the 'normal' A clarinet, but even in this corrected version it took decades for it to become established in the concert hall. As late as 1830, it was still easier to find "20 good flutists in a medium-sized town than one decent clarinettist", as the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung complained on the occasion of an arrangement of the Flute Concerto in G major.

It would be pointless to dwell on the beauty of the concerto. The synthesis of cantabile, "expressive" passages and "speaking" themes in the solo part is so perfect, the dialogue with the orchestra so subtle, the style of late Mozart so unmistakable, that a description is superfluous. One would have liked to have been there when Anton Stadler took over the wonderful main theme of the first movement from the orchestra, when he played his basset clarinet in the midst of the orchestral violins, when he shone in the passagework of the first movement, or when he integrated himself contrapuntally with the strings in the second theme. His version of the famous Adagio would have been particularly interesting for the embellishments he undoubtedly added to the theme. And one would have liked to have seen Mozart as his friend played the papageno-like rondo theme of the finale.

Source: kammermusikfuehrer.de

The Grimsel artificial lake was filmed by Christian Schlegel, the video was edited by Wenjing Ma.

【古典音樂小站】莫札特：A大調單簧管協奏曲K. 622 - 第二樂章 慢板。這首美麗的作品由布魯斯·愛德華茲演奏。它擁有創用CC授權並通過www.musopen.org提供。

「一首給單簧管的協奏曲，獻給斯塔德勒夫人。」這是莫扎特在他的作品目錄中的自筆字條，宣布他的單簧管協奏曲在1791年9月底至11月中旬完成。當他寫這部開創性的作品時，這個類型已不再處於起步階段。像慕尼黑的約瑟夫·米克爾和曼海姆的卡爾·斯塔米茨這樣的「次要大師」已經寫了很多有益的單簧管協奏曲，並且自1775年以來，單簧管一直被用於音樂會的咏叫唱法。然而，莫扎特在這部協奏曲中的工作有兩個特殊情況：他為維也納的單簧管演奏家安東·斯塔德勒寫了這部作品，他的柔和音色和無窮變化為樂器賦予了靈魂；他還為低音單簧管而作曲。在獨奏單簧管文學的早期年代，高音部分占據主導地位，而莫扎特則充分利用了樂器的整個音域，偏好豐滿而富有共鳴的中音和低音部分。只需想到為斯塔德勒而作的《蒂托的溫柔》裡的單簧管和低音單簧管獨奏，人們就能意識到莫扎特將單簧管轉化為理想化的歌聲，一個美妙豐富的「女中音」。

保存有單簧管協奏曲G大調第一樂章的初稿，是為低音單簧管和管弦樂團所寫。莫扎特顯然早在1789年就為奧格斯堡的G或F調低音單簧管寫下了這部作品，並且在幾個晚上的維也納與他的朋友斯塔德勒嘗試過這種樂器的效果。然而，由於無法重建的原因，莫扎特和斯塔德勒後來決定改為使用A大調新版本，不過還增加了一些低音音符，稱為「低音單簧管」。斯塔德勒顯然希望利用莫扎特的協奏曲在維也納推廣這種嶄新的他所青睞的樂器，並充分享受低音音符的魅力。在1791年春天的一次維也納音樂會上，斯塔德勒演奏了這首新協奏曲和特殊的樂器，「他」的低音單簧管。

對於這首協奏曲的美，無需贅述。獨奏部分中飽含歌唱性的「表達」段落和「談吐」主題是如此完美，與管弦樂團的對話如此微妙，莫扎特晚期風格如此獨特，以至於不需要描述。人們都希望能在安東·斯塔德勒從樂團中接過第一樂章中美妙的主題時在那裡，當他在樂團的小提琴中演奏他的低音單簧管時。人們希望見證斯塔德勒在第一樂章的插曲中閃耀的技巧，或者當他在第二主題中與弦樂部分彼此對位融合。他版本的著名的Adagio因他添加的裝飾音而特別有趣。並且人們想看到莫扎特的樣子，當他的朋友彈奏著結尾部分像帕帕根諾主題一樣的輪旋曲。

Grimsel人工湖的拍攝者是克里斯蒂安·施萊格爾，視頻由馬文璟編輯。

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