The four clarinet concertos by Louis Spohr are by no means rare
these days. A fair number of the leading clarinet virtuosos have tackled
them. What is less common - surprisingly - is to find a single set of all
four concertos. There is no real shortage of clarinettists whose recordings
of the four have been spread across two freestanding discs. However the only
other double I could find with all four is one on the Alpha label with Paul
Meyer and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. I have not heard that set
but it is at full price while this is in the bargain range.
Louis Spohr’s concertos for clarinet and for violin lent his name
some modest light during the long decades of neglect. Now, on CD, there are
cycles of his symphonies, quartets and even several of his operas. His music
bestrides the classical and early romantic eras and is alive with
intimations of
bel canto and Weber.
Spohr wrote all his four clarinet concertos for his friend, Johann
Simon Hermstedt. He must have been a determined and inventive character
because when the First Concerto proved beyond the standard instruments of
the time Hermstedt set about making some fairly radical changes to the
mechanism of the clarinet. This hardly matters now in the face of music that
is uniformly mellifluous, smoothly undulating and even somewhat mysterious.
Do try the first movement of the Fourth Concerto with its almost
supernatural operatic atmosphere. This unresisting and irresistible
music-making is often smoothly redolent of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto -
listen to the introductions to the Rondo finales of Nos. 2 and 4. More of
the ‘Wolf’s Glen’ magic can be heard in the first movement
of No. 2. The
bel canto flightiness and seductive charm of the Third
Concerto’s
Allegro is ripely despatched by Maria du Toit who is
well on top of the largely
cantabile requirements of this music
throughout. She seems well in the same league as Emma Johnson, Thea King and
John Denman. The Cape Philharmonic and Arjan Tien complement du Toit’s
artistry. Tien provides the liner-note essay and tells us that like Mozart,
Spohr and Hermstedt were both freemasons. The recording is as agreeable as
the music and there are good long pauses between works and movements.
This is a most inexpensive way of exploring these unfailingly
engaging and inventive classical clarinet concertos in a single double CD
set.
Rob Barnett
