Klarinet Archive - Posting 000044.txt from 2003/01

From: "Michael Bryant" <michael@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Who wrote this concero?
Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 16:47:05 -0500

It may be of help to know that Colin Lawson
recorded the Clarinet Concerto (1812)
by James Hook for Hyperion in 1996 (CDA 66896)
MB

Fred Sheim wrote on January 03, 2003 5:09 PM
Subject: [kl] Who wrote this concero?

I have just received a reply from the Tudor record company about the
Lefevre (Hook?) Concerto:

Dear Sir
We informed Eduard Brunner about your conflict and he confirmed us that the
concerto is really a Lefèvre work.
Best regards Wladek Glowacz

I emailed H. Voxman, who attributed this work to Hook, but did not receive
a reply. Can anyone shed some additional light on this matter? Why would
Mr. Voxman believe this was a work of Hook, and why would it be published
as such, and RECORDED as such?

Fred

I have just received a wonderful CD with Eduard Brunner as soloist playing
three of J. X. Lefevre's clarinet concertos, nos. 3, 4, and 6. I have the
sheet music for the concerto #6, as well as an old audio tape of it that
was played decades ago on WQXR's "Music from Germany" program. I was aware
of the existence of the concerto #4, because I saw it (and #6) in the score
published by Heugel. So I was eager to hear the Lefevre clarinet concerto
#3, since I was totally unaware of it. As I listened to the CD, the
concerto #3 sounded strangely familiar, but I couldn't really remember
how. I KNEW I played this work, but don't own the sheets for Lefevre's
#3. Well, it took this aging brain a full 24 hours to realize that the
"concerto #3 by LEFEVRE" on this CD is published by "English Woodwind
Edition (Nova music, ed. H. Voxman) as JAMES HOOK'S CONCERTO IN Eb!!! So
could someone set me straight on this- Is this work by Lefevre or
Hook? And what could cause such a monumental mixup?

LINER NOTES FOR THE 'LEFEVRE' CONCERTO #3

Possibly written just before 1800, the 3rd Concerto in E-flat allows the
soloist little respite. In the first movement he goes from the lowest to
the highest registers. The Adagio, only 56 bars long, features some of the
most sublime melodies invented by a Swiss classical composer. Brilliant
runs in the Rondo-Finale give way to an episode in minor key. In its
intervals and rhythm, the main theme recalls Papageno's aria "Der
Vogelfanger bin ich ja" from Mozart's "Magic Flute".

PREFACE (TO THE 'HOOK' Eb CONCERTO)

<snip>

Among his numerous instrumental compositions are overtures, concertos,
sonatas, and works for small ensembles. For the flute he composed a set of
Six Trios, op. 83 and Three Trios for Two Concert Flutes and the Patent
Voice Flute, op. 133, as well as some duets.
The title page of the manuscript score of the clarinet concerto reads Full
score / Concerto for the Clarinet /by/James Hook/Autograph In S.,
dated/August 4:1812. The heading of the first page of the actual score
reads Concerto, Clarinetto Obligato, August 4th, 1812. We are indebted to
the Nanki Music Library of Tokyo for furnishing the microfilm on which this
edition is based. The concerto is in the W.H. Cummings Collection of that
library, whose holdings have since been acquired by the Tokyo College of
Music and a private collector
.
H. Voxman
R.P. Block
Iowa City, Iowa
December, 1983

Fred

---------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------