Klarinet Archive - Posting 000751.txt from 1997/05
From: Alan Stanek <stanalan@-----.edu>
Subj: Grand Duo Concertante written for ? - more?s
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 01:36:26 -0400
Thanks to klarinet readers for their private replies and those posted to
the list. The confusion remains as one's "research" contradicts others.
The reason I asked the question was that my "research" - reading G.
Rendall's _The Clarinet_, Weston's _Clarinet Virtuosi of the Past_ and
other sources, led me to "believe" that Baermann wrote this work for
Hermstedt.
Pamela Weston's Forward to her new edition (1989) begins by stating that
Weber "wrote six major works for the clarinet .... all of these except
the Grand Duo were written for his friend the clarinetist Heinrich
Baermann." Later she writes that the Grand Duo was the last of the six
works to be written - following the completion of the Quintet, Op. 34.
"Weber wrote the Rondo and Adagio (I think she [or the publisher/editor]
should have written Rondo and *Andante con moto* - 3rd and 2nd movements
respectively) in July 1815 and performed these with Heinrich Baermann on
the following 2nd August. He did not begin to write the first movement
until June 1816 and finished it on 8th November. It was published the
following year by Schleisinger. The autograph is now in the Library of
Congress, Washington."
She then goes on to say - "It was probably due to the fact that Richault
published the clarinet and piano version of the Quintet, op. 34 as
"Grand Duo Concertant" that people were confused into saying op. 48 was
for Baermann, but there is no proof that this was so. The first known
performance of the complete work was given by Johann Gottlieb Kotte with
Julius Benedikt at Dresden in 1824. Both Rendall (private notes) and
Profeta (Storia e litteratura degli strumenti musicali) state that op.
48 was written for Kotte, but Kotte did not meet Weber until after its
composition. Many people think it was for Simon Hermstedt, Spohr's
clarinettist. Hermstedt did indeed commission a work from Weber in 1812
on his usual terms (he did this for Spohr as well); that he had sole
rights to it for two years. As the Grand Duo was published the year
following its composition there were no sole rights here, and there is
no record that Weber ever actually carried out the commission. Another
argument against its being Hermstedt's is that when he was asked to play
at a memorial concert to Weber at Magdeburg in 1828 he chose the
Variations op. 33, not the Grand Duo."
Did Hermstedt lay aside his "sole rights" contract clause just to get
this wonderful piece from the master? Was Weber so enamored with another
licorice stick jockey that he forgot to make the proper entry in his
journal? Did Weber break the sole rights contract because the publisher
was hot to get another composition published by this prolific clarinet
composer? Who were Weber's competition composition-wise? Was Hermstedt's
choice of another work for Weber's memorial concert the "real"
reason/augument why the Grand Duo couldn't be subscribed to him?
Perhaps we'll never know.
What other arguments can readers give to uncover the mystery?
CHEERS!
--
Alan Stanek, Professor of Music at Idaho State University
Phone: 208-236-3108; Fax: 208-236-4884; E-mail: stanalan@-----.edu
http://www.isu.edu/departments/music
President, International Clarinet Asociation http://www.clarinet.org
Come to the ICA 1997 ClarinetFest at Texas Tech University, July 9-13
http://www.ttu.edu/~music/clarinetfest
