Weber: Clarinet Concertos, Clarinet Quintet

Description

Weber's first romantic heroine is undoubtedly the clarinet. Ten years before Max and Der Freischütz, Weber composed his two concertos and began the Quintet. Three masterpieces he dedicated to the virtuoso Baermann, who would significantly revise the clarinet part of the concertos in his edition, which has been passed down to posterity. For his first recording, clarinetist Arthur Stockel returns to the sources of the original scores. More stripped down, the solo part highlights the connection of these pieces with the composer's dramatic imagination. Nourished by the lied and opera, Arthur Stockel explores their relationship to vocality and gives his instrument a thoroughly Weberian role, between ardor, tenderness and pain. At his side, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, where he has held the position of principal clarinet since 2019, conductor Leo McFall and the Quatuor Hanson respond to him, with playfulness (minuet of the Quintet), verve or grandeur (first Concerto).