Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....

 wrote his Clarinet Concerto

Clarinet concerto

A clarinet concerto is a piece for clarinet and orchestra . Albert Rice has identified a work by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli as possibly the earliest known concerto for solo clarinet; its score appears to be titled "Concerto per Clareto" and may date from 1733. It may, however, be intended for...

 No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 74, in 1811. It is composed of three movements:

1. Allegro
2. Andante con moto
3. Alla Polacca

A typical performance lasts 23 minutes. The 1st movement typically lasts for approximately 8:30 minutes, the 2nd movement for approximately 7 minutes and the 3rd movement for between 6:30 and 7 minutes depending on the tempo.

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for a solo clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

 and an orchestra consisting of 2 flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

s, 2 oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

s, 2 bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

s, 2 horn

Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....

s, 2 trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

s, timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

 and strings

String section

The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...

.

First Movement

The 1st Movement, in Eb major, begins with a very grand statement by the orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

. The strings give a rather virtuosic rendition of fragments of the Clarinet melodic material. The Clarinet soloist enters with a high F (E flat concert pitch) followed by a 3 octave jump. This 3 octave jump along with other large leaps are stylistic of this movement. The majority of the first half of the movement sits very comfortably in Eb major before modulating to Db major where much of the previous clarinet melodic material is repeated. The movement finishes with a rather virtuosic clarinet part extending to the very limits of clarinet range (the clarinet goes as high as concert Ab).

Second Movement

The 2nd movement, by stark contrast in G minor, is reflective of Weber's many operas. With its operatic phrasing, this movement really exhibits the rich tone of the clarinet. The clarinet melody has very expressive dynamics, often going from fortissmo to piano in the space of one bar. After the initial statement of the melody, the work moves into an orchestral section in A major which acts as a sort of extended dominant to D minor when the clarinet enters again. It is in the C minor section when we begin to see short note values which adds to a very operatic style. Once again the orchestra goes into a section in G major, which exactly imitates the previous section in G major. Suddenly the clarinet enters in F major with a very virtuosic scale followed by numerous runs. In this F major section there is some very large leaps, one being 3 octaves and a tone at bar 56. The work shifts back to G minor with a recitative, once again in the operatic style. This is taken very freely with the clarinet and orchestra taking turns in playing. After the recitative, the original melody in A minor is repeated and followed by a rather short cadenza

Cadenza

In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....

before the work finishes with a very long concert G from the clarinet.

Third Movement

Considered staple clarinet repertoire, the 3rd movement in Eb major is an exhibition of technique and style on the part of the soloist. The Polacca is usually taken at a somewhat faster speed than what pollacas are normally taken at however, some players choose to take it slower. Once again, Weber regularly used rather large leaps to embellish the clarinet melody which is usually made up of semiquavers (16th notes). The melody is often dotted and syncopated to give a somewhat cheeky feel to the work. There is a 2 bar fragment of the melody (bb 19-20) which is regarded as one of the hardest fragments for clarinet repertoire because of the clarinet playing without orchestra with very fast leaps, all slurred. The work sits very comfortably in Eb major until Weber uses a series of diminished chords to send the work into D major. However, this is short lived as the work comes back to F major which the original melody being stated again with elements of F# major entering. The work finishes with one of the most virtuosic passages in the clarinet repertoire. Made up of largely arpeggios and scalic runs in sextuplet semiquavers, it is a very fitting end to one of Weber's greatest works

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