Klarinet Archive - Posting 000300.txt from 1998/11

From: Note Staff Unlimited <notestaff@-----.ch>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart and a "new concerto"
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 19:32:20 -0500

klarinet@-----.org schrieb:

> > From: MX%"klarinet@-----.99
> > Subj: [kl] Mozart and a "new concerto"
>
> > This falls under the category of "things that make you go hmmmm.
> >
> > I was glancing through an older issue of the HB Recordings catalog
> > (May to be exact) and on p. 13 came across this description of a recording
> > by Dieter Klocker.
> >
> > "Scholarly research has revealed that the E flat Concerto, which
> > was previously thought to be a sixth violin concerto, was probably
> > intended to be for the clarinet."
> >
> >
> > Does anyone have an idea if this research exists and where to find it? I
> > have not heard of this one before.
> >
> > Laroy
> >
> > Dr. Laroy Borchert
> > Professor of Clarinet
> > NMSU
> >
>
> Laroy, if you believe this one, there is a bridge in Brooklyn that
> I would like to sell to you. There are several anomolies in the
> description the first of which is that Mozart wrote only 5 violin
> concerti and the second of which is the relative impossibility of
> transcribing what is suggested to be a work for clarinet to an
> idiomatic work for violin.
>
> Suppose for a moment that Mozart did write another clarinet concerto
> and the violin mafia decided to steal it and make it into a violin
> concerto. The two instruments have such different tessaturas and
> are used so radically differently that what would come out would be
> a crippled piece of composition.
>
> There is yet another factor at work here; i.e., who is going to buy
> a clarinet concerto that was formerly a violin concerto of Ludwig
> Schnurtz (made up name)? No one. So instead, a clever marketeer
> says, "Let's tie this one to Mozart somehow and it will make a
> mint."
>
> Now let us talk about that bridge that I own in Brooklyn...
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> =======================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> leeson@-----.edu
> =======================================
>
> Hey Dan, whoah, not so fast! I also always thought that Mozart only wrote five
> violin concertos (and was always jealous as a clarinettist with only one!) but
> there *is* a work for violin and orchestra which *may* be by Mozart. It's
> called "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in Eb Major K 268". Yes, it even has
> a Koechel number! You can buy a pocket score from Eulenburg. It's Edition
> Eulenburg Nr. 718.

Now, why don't we know of this piece as a violin concerto? It's very simple:
It's practically unplayable and totally ungrateful to play on the violin. No
violinist in his right mind wants to do it! (Which supports what you say about a
crippled piece) Was Mozart ,as a commission composer, likely to write an
unplayable piece? It's not like he didn't know any better... What's more likely
is that it was written for a Bb instrument (being in the key of Eb). Clarinet is
the most likely candidate.

The differences between the violin and the clarinet version of this piece remind
me somewhat of the differences between the viola and the (normal i.e. short)
clarinet version of the Mozart A major concerto which both appeared in print
simultaneously after Mozart's death. Also, as you suggest with the Eb concerto,
the viola version of the A major is not comparable to the clarinet version. Of
course it is eminently more playable being in A and not in Eb. I don't think (I
have absolutely no evidence here, only my feeling for Mozart which I trust) that
Mozart did the arrangements. (neither one: the clarinet nor the viola
arrangement)

As far as the question as to whether this piece is by Mozart, I recommend that
you first listen to it. If you are familiar with Mozart (and I *know* you are),
you'll recognize him here. Try it! But don't ask me for any scholarly
evidence....

David
David Glenn
notestaff@-----.ch

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