Clarinet Concerto (Mozart) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 was written in 1791 for the clarinettist Anton Stadler. It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast-slow-fast form:

1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Rondo: Allegro

The concerto is frequently described as 'autumnal' due to the lyrical Adagio and the emotive passages in minor keys in the outer movements. It was also one of Mozart's final completed works (he died in the December following its completion). The concerto is notable for its delicate interplay between soloist and orchestra, and for the lack of overly extroverted display on the part of the soloist (no cadenzas are written out in the solo part).

Mozart originally wrote the work for basset horn, and although it is often heard performed on the instrument's modern equivalent, the basset clarinet, the concerto has been transcribed for the modern A and Bb clarinets.

Table of contents

1 First Movement: Allegro 2 Second Movement: Adagio 3 Third movement: Rondo: Allegro

First Movement: Allegro

Originally written as a sketch for basset horn, the movement opens with an orchestral statement of the main theme. The theme is taken up by the soloist, and the music quickly takes on a more melancholy feel. At the end of this section, the pauses in the solo part are often taken as a point to perform a short cadenza. The main theme reappears, and leads to the novel feature of the soloist accompanying the orchestra with an Alberti bass. Further development leads to dramatic turn, which, after a tutti, leads back into the main theme. The Alberti bass and arpeggios for the soloist recur before the movement ends in a relatively cheerful tutti.

Second Movement: Adagio

Possibly the most well-known part of this concerto, the beautiful and profound Adagio opens with the soloist playing the movement's theme, marked espressivo. The descending notes of the answering theme are more elegiac, and are, like the first, repeated by the orchestra. The development, in which the solo part is always to the fore, exploits both the chalumeau and clarion registers, and is invariably performed with a final cadenza.

The first theme and its answer recur, leading into a coda in which the calm mood of the movement is not once lost.

Third movement: Rondo: Allegro

The closing rondo has a cheerful refrain, with episodes either echoing this mood or recalling the darker colours of the first movement. In the end, the more cheerful mood wins out, and the concerto ends with a tutti untouched by the melancholy seen elsewhere in the work.

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