Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F Minor

It was while he was on tour in Mannheim during 1811 that Weber, aged 25, first met the celebrated German clarinettist Heinrich Bärmann (1784-1847), who had served as a Prussian army bandsman at Potsdam. Just as Weber’s hero Mozart had been inspired to compose a clarinet concerto and quintet for Anton Stadler, so Weber now wrote a scorchingly inventive concertino for Bärmann. This created such an impact that King Maximilian I of Bavaria immediately commissioned Weber to produce two full-length concertos for the instrument. Weber and Bärmann got on famously and even gave a series of recitals together (Weber was a formidable pianist), which is reflected in the glorious abandonment and coruscating brilliance of the Clarinet Concerto No. 1 (1811). The opening “Allegro”, composed in a single day, has a sonata form outline—thematic exposition, development and recapitulation—yet is thoroughly unconventional in giving the first theme (heard in the cellos) to the orchestra, and the second (marked “con duolo”, sorrowful) to the soloist. The cadenza (composed by Bärmann) is placed not toward the end, as is customary, but forms a bridge into the development section. The aria-like slow movement features a haunting central section that anticipates the “Wolf’s Glen” scene of Weber’s groundbreaking Gothic opera Der Freischütz (1821), while the jaunty finale erupts ultimately in a display of virtuoso fireworks.