Mozart & Widmann: Clarinet Quintets

Chronique

Clarinetist Jörg Widmann has recorded Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581, in the past, and in part, this 2024 release seems to have been occasioned by his completion of his own Clarinet Quintet, commissioned by the Hagen Quartett and heard here. He pondered the work for some ten years, at one point giving up because, he said, he knew he could write a work for clarinet and strings, but he couldn't write a clarinet quintet. When he returned to the work, he succeeded in creating a 38-minute single-movement work that has a genuine dialogue between the clarinet and the string quartet. Sample the opening pages, where the strings sound a variety of percussive sounds, over which the clarinet adds long arches. It is certainly a work that requires close concentration, but it will reward that. Widmann's work aside, the Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major here receives an extraordinary performance that is perhaps stimulated by Widmann's attempt to swing for the fences with his own work. He uses little vibrato and coaxes a similar sound from the string quartet, resulting in a performance that adds some tension to the autumnal languid mood most often heard in the work. Myrios Classics' sound from a Bremen Radio studio is excellent, and this recording will be a powerful experience even for those not in the market for a 40-minute contemporary chamber work.

© James Manheim /TiVo