Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E flat Major, Op. 74

Martin Spangenberg’s performances reveal the genuine delicacy of this music.

His meticulous consideration of tempos reveals new aspects of this magnificent music.

Also included are the overtures to Beherrscher der Geister and Oberon.

On this disc, the exclusive Chandos artist, Michael Collins, plays the clarinet in three works for clarinet and orchestra by Weber, as well as conducting the City of London Sinfonia. The disc also includes Weber’s horn concertino, featuring the soloist Stephen Stirling.

The two concertos and the concertino for clarinet and orchestra are considered among the repertoire cornerstones for today’s clarinettists. Weber wrote the works for his personal friend Heinrich Bärmann, the principal clarinettist of the Munich court orchestra, whose own embellishments of the works (changes of articulation, extra grace notes, and even an added accompanied cadenza in the first concerto) have been incorporated in the performances recorded here. Michael Collins suggests that these changes ‘do not make the music any easier to play, but they do make it more thrilling’.

Each of the works displays a well-balanced mix of virtuosity, daring, humour, and sheer beauty, and throughout, the role of the orchestra is much more than a mere accompaniment. The woodwind solos, a trio of horns, blaring trumpets, and dashing violins contribute greatly to making these works so captivating.

Written in 1806, when Weber was just nineteen years old, the virtuosic Horn Concertino pushed known horn techniques to new limits, requiring the soloist among other feats to produce a ‘four-note chord’, the technique known as multiphonics. The work is today considered a gem in the horn repertoire, and our soloist, Stephen Stirling, is ‘a player gifted with the utmost sensitivity and imagination, which is shown through the beautiful way he shapes musical phrases and the extraordinary range of colours he employs’ – in the words of the late Richard Hickox.

The brilliant clarinettist Karl-Heinz Steffens has been a principal member of the Berliner Philharmoniker for many years. Here he performs exciting romantic repertoire with “soulful torrents of melody.” The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’s recent Mahler cycle has received excellent reviews.

Both Weber and Cavallini played an important role in the history of the clarinet, as their compositions helped to develop the technical and expressive potential of the instrument. This is a world premiere recording of the Cavallini. The clarinetist Wenzel Fuchs gives master classes all over the world.

This is the first recording in the West of Boris Tchaikovsky’s Clarinet Concerto. Composed in former USSR, this is a piece with a thoroughly Russian soul, but remains full of playful exuberance. Its very charm and nonchalance make for joyful music. Also included are Debussy’s Petite Pièce and Weber’s Clarinet Concerto.

For his third album for Sony Classical Fabio di Càsola has recorded works by Carl Maria von Weber, accompanied by the Chamber Philharmonic of St. Petersburg under the baton of its principal conductor Juri Gilbo. Weber came to know and love the clarinet through his friendship with Heinrich Baermann, a famous clarinettist of his day. The three most important works dedicated to Baermann are brought together on this CD: the two Clarinet Concertos and the Clarinet Quintet, which is to be heard on our recording in a version for clarinet and string orchestra.