Mozart: Clarinet Trio, 'kegelstatt' / Clarinet Quartets

Description

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)Trio in E Flat Major, K. 498 (Kegelstatt Trio) Quartet in B Flat Major, K. 378 (K. 317d) (rev. Bela Kovacs) Quartet in F Major, K. 496Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was barn in Salzburg in 1756, the sanof a court musician who, in the year of his youngest child's birth, published aninfluential book on violin-playing. Leopold Mozart rose to occupy the position ofVice-Kapellmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg, but sacrificed his own creative careerto that of his son, in whom he detected early signs of precocious genius. With theindulgence of his patron, he was able to undertake extended concert tours of Europe inwhich his son and his eider daughter Nannerl were able to astonish audiences. The bayplayed bath the keyboard and the violin and could improvise and soon write dawn his owncompositions.Childhood that had brought Mozart signal success was followedby a less satisfactory period of adolescence largely in Salzburg, under the patronage of anew and less sympathetic Archbishop. Like his father, Mozart found opportunities far toolimited at home, while chances of travel were now restricted. In 1777, when leave ofabsence was not granted, he gave up employment in Salzburg to seek a future elsewhere, butneither Mannheim nor Paris, both musical centres of some importance, had anything for him.His Mannheim connections, however, brought a commission for an opera in Munich in 1781,and after its successful staging he was summoned by his patron to Vienna. There Mozart'sdissatisfaction with his position resulted in a quarrel with the Archbishop and dismissalfrom his service.The last ten years of Mozart's life were spent in Vienna inprecarious independence of both patron and immediate paternal advice, a situationaggravated by an imprudent marriage. Initial success in the opera-house and as a performerwas followed, as the decade went on, by increasing financial difficulties. By the time ofhis death in December 1791, however, his fortunes seemed about to change for the better,with the success of the German opera The Magic Flute, and the possibility of increasedpatronage.The clarinet in its more primitive form, a simple single-reedinstrument of cylindrical bore, has an ancient history. The chalumeau, the form of theinstrument known in 17th century Europe, was developed at the beginning of the followingcentury to give a wider and higher range, with two contrasting registers, the so calledchalumeau or lower register and the upper flute-like notes, now possible with anadditional register key. The clarinet won only gradual acceptance as an orchestralinstrument, notably in Vienna with the brothers Johann and Anton Stadler, engaged in theImperial wind band from 1773 and from 1787 in the court orchestra. Anton Stadler,specialising in the lower register, experimented with a form of the instrument with astill lower range, now generally known as the basset clarinet, for which Mozart wrote his Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto, both design