Spohr: Clarinet Concerto No. 3 in F minor, WoO 19

We are only just beginning to rediscover the works of Louis Spohr (1784-1859), who was not only a composer, but also a virtuoso violinist, possibly the greatest conductor of his time, and a renowned teacher – a man who played a leading role in musical life in Germany in the nineteenth century. His works – almost three hundred, covering many genres – bear the mark of Viennese Classicism, but his harmonic research announces the advent of the Romantic period.

Ten or so of his compositions require the clarinet, including four concertos, belonging to two different periods in his life. Wishing to be as faithful as possible to the original works for this recording on the Alpha label, the clarinettist and conductor Paul Meyer approached the Internationale Louis Spohr Gesellschaft in Kassel, which possesses the original manuscripts of the Fourth Concerto, the sketches for nos. 3 and 4, and copies of the manuscripts of nos. 1 to 3.

This magnificent performance by Paul Meyer, soloist and conductor, with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, gives us an opportunity to discover (or rediscover) these very fine works.

Recorded in 1951

This disc is a long-awaited sequel to Hyperion’s disc of Spohr’s Clarinet Concertos Nos 1 & 2, recorded by the same forces. It was at Gotha in the autumn of 1808 that Spohr met the clarinet virtuoso Johann Simon Hermstedt, and the two men hit it off straight away. Spohr immediately began work on his first clarinet concerto. Hermstedt was so taken by the work that—rather than insisting on the composer modifying some of his more outlandish, and unplayable, demands—he adapted and expanded his instrument to suit the music, thus bringing about important developments in the range and flexibility of the clarinet, expanding it from five keys to thirteen. Of the four concertos Spohr wrote for Hermstedt, the Third is the most overtly virtuosic, with a fiery restless energy supporting grand, sweeping themes of real distinction. The Fourth ranks among Spohr’s finest compositions.