Author: oldreedguy
Date: 2019-12-10 04:22
Opus 26...I'll throw my comments in here...I like his two clarinet concertos too, but the concertino I know best...
I first heard that peace (yes, I'm spelling it THAT way) as a 9th or 10th grade 2nd clarinetist in the 1970s era Amherst Massachusetts USA Regional High symphony (yes, that school, in a town full of colleges). The soloist, a snobby rich kid named Eric Smith (went to some Ivy league, I dropped out out UMass as a drunk gambler and joined the Navy at 20) played the opening concert Ab of the Concertino and I started to cry. Yes, the passion of that piece, played by that teenage snob, touched me...and at age 38, at Univ of Pacific, Stockton, I passed an audition on that very same piece (unaccompanied, on stage in front of two UOP woodwind faculty), having returned to the clarinet 18 years after my boot camp band days (yes, I could have been a Navy MU but turned it down...). I dropped out and did other stuff, mostly choral singing and some clarinet/sax here and there...now, guitar/singing, posting originals on YouTube.
Theory...I have a BM in Comp and agree that Carl Maria was more classical than Romantic, and died so young, like Schubert, not even made it to 30...but unlike Haydn, who I think was a pretty "by-the-book" composer who lived long and prospered, Carl Maria had some passion in his clarinet works that is exemplified by the Concertino. That passion is more Romantic but the his theory pallet was pretty much classical, don't you think? And I fell in love with Schumann's Dichterliebe (ich grolle nicht was my go-to audition piece for many years as a first tenor)...
But it all started when I heard that concert Ab in the Concertino...it was a life-changer...
How one note can speak volumes!
Now 58 alone and disabled, barely functioning, I recently picked up two buffets after letting go of my horns earlier this year...an S1 Bb and a 1919 vintage A...I can still play a little. No more groups, just this computer technology. Maybe I'll play along and improvise on opus 26 again.
Thank you for the memory.
Barney P.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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