Mozart, and more:
- Works for Clarinet & Orchestra:
Copland:
- Clarinet Concerto
Kats-Chernin:
- Ornamental Air
Performed by Michael Collins (basset clarinet)
Mozart:
- Clarinet Concerto in A major, K622
- Michael Collins (basset clarinet)
Performed by Michael Collins (clarinet, basset clarinet, and conductor), with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Let’s begin with a collection of audio tracks that will give you a taste of this wonderful music via my Spotify playlist:
On this recording, Michael Collins combines the roles of clarinet soloist and conductor. He creates a journey of the clarinet from Mozart’s late eighteenth-century Europe, via Aaron Copland’s 1940’s US, to today’s musical times, with a piece written for Michael Collins in 2007 by the Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.
Mozart composed his Clarinet Concerto, just weeks before his death in 1791, for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. Stadler performed the work on what today is known as the basset clarinet, which features additional low notes without compromising the higher register.
Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto was commissioned in 1947 by Benny Goodman, the most famous band leader of the swing era, who has been credited with having made jazz ‘respectable’. Goodman also had a second career as a classical clarinetist. He was eager to enrich the repertoire by inviting major composers to write for him, and Copland was happy to take on the challenge.
Elena Kats-Chernin is one of Australia’s leading composers. Her “Ornamental Air” was written in 2007 in response to a commission from a group of orchestras including the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, with Michael Collins as the intended soloist.
Here are the movement titles on this CD:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Allegro
Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto
I. Slowly and expressively
II. Rather fast
Elena Kats-Chernin: Ornamental Air
Here is the Poulenc Clarinet sonata with Michael Collins
And now, we hear Michael Collins and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra play the Mozart clarinet concerto:
Tags: Michael Collins, clarinet, Mozart, Copland, Elena Kats-Chernin