Klarinet Archive - Posting 000007.txt from 1995/02

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: Edgar Pearlstein's inquiry about a G clarinet
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 12:11:07 -0500

>On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
>
>> In fact, it is the instrument for which Mozart originally created the
>> concerto that turned out to be K. 622. The surviving autograph fragment
>> is for basset horn in g.
>
>Are you sure? I was told (and I've seen a facsimile of the autograph,
>though I didn't notice a key signature) that it was written for a
>Clarinet in A with a low C attachment, and that it was called a Basset
>Clarinet. I know that the surviving autograph doesn't go to low C, but
>it has been suggested that some parts in the second and especially in the
>third movement have some low stuff (sub-E). This would make sense
>musically in the piece, due to the sometimes-disrupted lines in any
>current "standard" edition.
>
>Adam Smith
>malaga@-----.edu

The facsimile you've seen is not the autograph (or if it is, you've made a
great discovery!), it is of the fragment written one year earlier in 1790
for Stadler's G basset horn. There are something like 190 measures of this
fragment.

The actual manuscript to the finished work which he rewrote a year later in
the fall of 1791 (just before he died) was lost. It was written for
Stadler's extended A clarinet (the basset clarinet to which you are
referring). The manuscript was probably lost by Mozart's ignorant and
vindictive wife who didn't even do anything about more than two-thirds of
his manuscripts (which were unpublished at his death) until an unsuspecting
musicologist (Nissen) boarded at her house, more than ten years after
Mozart died, and stumbled over the manuscripts. He then began to get them
published.

She sold some, lost some, and may have even destroyed some.

Anyhow, knowing that the piece was indeed written for an extended A
clarinet that goes down to low concert A, and given the existence of the
Mozart's initial pass at the majority of the first movement (from the
fragment in G), one can fairly surely derive what Mozart must have written
with a bit of careful analysis.

A reasonable pass at this fixing of the score has been published by
B@-----. I
believe there is also another edition edited by Alan Hacker that is fairly
good.

The recording that comes closest (in my opinion) to what Mozart wrote is
the one on Deutsche Gramophone with Orpheus and soloist Charles Neidich.
Charlie's editing of the part is much better than either of the published
editions.

If you're interested in getting a basset clarinet, both Leblanc and Yamaha
make very good ones now.

Have fun!

Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net