CBA Ode to Joy

Program Notes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A, K622

Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A, K622, completed in 1791, seven weeks before Mozart’s death, is the first concerto written for the clarinet by a major composer. This is no surprise because the clarinet was invented in 1710 by C.H. Denner in Germany. In fact, as originally conceived, the Concerto was written for a different instrument, the basset horn. A manuscript exists of the first 199 bars of a concerto written for basset horn in G in 1787, which matches identically the same portion of the Clarinet Concerto. It is undisputed that Mozart wrote the Concerto for the talented Anton Stadler, who played both basset horn and clarinet. Ultimately, scholars agree that the final Concerto was written for yet another Stadler instrument, the basset clarinet, which could play several notes lower than a standard clarinet pitched in A. Of Stadler, Mozart wrote: “Never would I have thought that a clarinet could be capable of imitating the human voice as deceptively as it is imitated by you. Truly, your instrument has so soft and lovely a tone that nobody with a heart could resist it.” Mozart loved the clarinet as played by Stadler and wrote what many maintain is the definitive work for the instrument. As Mozart loved the clarinet and a particular soloist, tonight’s clarinet soloist loves Mozart’s great work for the clarinet. In high school, John’s clarinet teacher employed the Concerto to teach him to play many notes evenly to a strict tempo beat out relentlessly by a metronome. The 6/8 Rondo third movement must be played evenly and in time. The Adagio second movement, popularized in the movie “Out of Africa,” provided an exercise in restraint, playing very slowly and deliberately without pushing the tempo. Having fallen in love with the Concerto as a student, John selected the flourish at the end of the third movement as his prepared audition piece for Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. It worked, and John had a summer job playing in the German Festhaus, Italian, and Bozo bands all through college. In the summer of 1984, while studying at Exeter College inOxford, England, John and several other students organized a chamber concert in the Chapel, where John played the first movement with piano accompaniment. In the summer of 1985, John played the first movement again with piano accompaniment for Virginia Governor Charles Robb at the Governor’s Mansion as part of a celebratory party for his Governor’s Fellow colleagues. In 1998, John finally had the chance to realize every clarinetist’s dream: to play the entire Clarinet Concerto with a full orchestra. That performance was in the CBA Building in Corboy Hall withMaestro David Katz and the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra. An admirer of Mozart’s other works for clarinet as well, John has since performed the Mozart Clarinet Quintet and the Mozart Kegelstatt Trio in CBA chamber concerts. In Spring 2018 he reprised his performance of the entire concerto. Tonight, he returns to the second movement of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with Maestro Katz and the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra.

–Program Note by John S. Vishneski III

26 ODE TO JOY