Allegro
Fantasia. Adagio ma non troppo
Menuetto. Capriccio presto
Rondo. Allegro giocoso

Just as Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Concerto had been written with a particular player in mind, so were the concertos and Quintet of Carl Maria von Weber. Heinrich Bärmann and Weber immediately struck up a rapport after their first meeting in Munich, and his virtuosity greatly impressed the composer. This was partly, too, because of Bärmann’s choice of instrument. As John Warrack has explained, ‘two years before their Munich meeting, Bärmann had acquired a ten-key clarinet that allower greater flexibility and smoothness; an in Bärmann’s clarinet Weber found an instrument that with its French incisiveness and its German fullness seemed to express a new world of feeling, and to match both the dark romantic melancholy and the extrovert brilliance of his own temperament.’ As well as concertos for Bärmann, Weber worked sporadically on a Quintet. Having started this in 1811, he finally finished it on 25 August 1815, the day before the first performance. Given the rather haphazard composing process, it’s not surprising that the work is not one of Weber’s most profound, but it is a brilliant and charming vehicle for the soloist – described by John Warrack as ‘a pocket concerto, written purely for delight in virtuoso effect.’

Nigel Simeone © 2010