Carl Stamitz

This disc features two important Clarinet Concertos by father and son Johann and Carl Stamitz. The works on this exemplary recording are performed by the Cappella Coloniensis with Hans Deinzer and Jann Engel. Hans Deinzer is one of the most influential soloists and teachers of the 20th century.

Carl Stamitz wrote 11 Clarinet Concertos but the Concerto for 2 solo Clarinets recorded on this CD takes prime position. It was originally published for clarinet and violin but it was not until the 20th century that this opus returned to its original form, the sound Stamitz had intended. The music of Johann Stamitz marks the transition from Baroque to the Classical era, and his Clarinet Concerto is renowned for being one of the first ‘real’ concertos written for the instrument.

The names of the brothers Anton and Carl Stamitz, just like that of their father, Jan Václav Stamic, are primarily synonymous with Mannheim and the local orchestra, which as early as from the middle of the 18th century set new trends in instrumental music.

Both of them arose from this milieu, yet their masterly violin playing was later on admired by listeners in Paris and other European music centres (in Germany England, The Netherlands…). At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, their concertos for wind instruments were performed by musicians no less famous and travelled.

The horn-player Zdenek Tylšar and the clarinettist Bohuslav Zahradník especially are still referred to by specialists with the greatest respect and reverence. In their time, both of them disseminated worldwide the splendid reputation of the Czech “wind school”, also as soloists of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The Stamitz brothers’ concertos afford soloists prodigious scope for virtuosity and musicality.

And on this album the soloists in question make use of it to the full, thereby providing us with the opportunity to enjoy an hour’s worth of music in the style of one of the most significant music centres of the second half of the 18th century.