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Ferruccio Busoni Concertino

Author: Stephanie
Date: 2011-03-06 14:44

Hello fellow clarinetists!

I am currently beginning research for my dissertation, hopefully discussing Ferruccio Busoni's Concertino for Clarinet and Small Orchestra.

It is rumored that Busoni compiled a bunch of themes previously written by other composers to create this work. Have any of you heard this rumor? If so, do you recognize any of the themes and where they originate?

I would appreciate ANY feedback or tidbits about this piece that you may know!

Thank you so much for your time,
Stephanie

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Re: Ferruccio Busoni Concertino

Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2011-03-06 22:18

Stephanie, I must confess that I know nothing about this concertino and very little about Busoni. However, I did purchase a copy of it many years ago, and I just pulled it out to take a look at it. I also listened to a recording on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CSchokhw_o

I honestly don't know if Busoni used themes of other composers in this work. After listening to it, though, I hear echoes of Weber, Mendelssohn (one of Busoni's favorites), and perhaps Richard Strauss. There is a very superficial resemblance between the opening theme of Busoni's concertino and the first bar of the Allegro moderato section in the first movement of Mendelssohn's clarinet sonata (both begin with dotted quarter-eighth, dotted quarter-eighth). A less superficial resemblance can be found between the theme in the second movement of Mendelssohn's sonata and the theme in the Andantino section of Busoni's concertino.

As far as Weber is concerned, I'm not sure if I hear any direct quotes, but I do detect a little Weber-influence in several places. Weber sometimes used a basic eighth note accompaniment pattern in the orchestra in his concertos and in the quintet, and Busoni does something similar in bars 5 - 8. The beautiful soaring clarinet melody in bars 8 and 9 sound like something right out of a Weber concerto. In the ten bars before the Andantino section, there are more of these eighth notes in the orchestra and a the same Weber-like singing passage in the clarinet part, although transposed up a step. The quasi-recitative section from bars 111 to 122 also sound a bit Weber-like to me. The final portion--bars 192 to the end remind me a little of both the Weber quintet and the last movement of the second concerto.

To me, the harmonies in measures 45 to 50 sound very Richard Strauss-like.

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