Klarinet Archive - Posting 000142.txt from 1997/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: Mozart concerto/concerti
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 08:25:50 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.00
> Subj: Mozart concerto/concerti

> Could someone please clear up a point of confusion that has developed for
> me on the Mozart "Concerto?" Is the one he wrote for Basset clarinet (K
> 622, which is the familiar one) the same as, similar to, or completely
> different from the concerto for basset horn (which Dan Leeson noted as
> being K 621b)? Was one an earlier version of the other? Thanks,
>
> Bill Edinger

Mozart originally chose to create a concerto for basset horn in G,
and he wrote approximately 200 measures before giving it up
(though there is a clear indication about 30 measures from the
end that he had changed to clarinet in A). The sketchy and
very incomplete autograph that remains (and which is the ONLY
material we have to consult with) represents the very same music
that we play today as K. 622.

The K. listing for this sketch is K. 621b. It is a different
composition (though not different music) from K. 622.

After giving up on the concerto for b.h. in g, Mozart then
wrote the concerto for clarinet in A, K. 622. This score
has disappeared and we have no idea if it was complete. In 1803
an edition was printed that edited out all of the low basset
clarinet notes. This is what we refer to today as the
Mozart clarinet concerto; i.e., the 1803 version of Mozart's
clarinet conception, itself an outgrowth of the basset horn
conception.

>
>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================