Clarinet Sonata

One of two sonatas for wind instruments that Poulenc composed back to back in 1962, the Clarinet Sonata is more extrovert than its companion piece for oboe—which is maybe unsurprising in music commissioned by the star jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman. But the two works nonetheless share musical ideas, including an up-and-down phrase that seesaws achingly across an octave in the opening movement of the clarinet score. Both works also share a common purpose as memorials to dead composer friends, with the Clarinet Sonata dedicated to Arthur Honegger. But Prokofiev seems a more obvious influence on its content—especially in that first movement, paradoxically called “Allegro tristamente” (“sad allegro,” allegro usually suggesting a brisk and lively tempo). With a slow, billowing dance in the second movement “Romanza” and spiky, upbeat brilliance in a concluding “Allegro,” the Sonata turned out to be one of Poulenc’s final works. He died before the premiere, for which he had been scheduled as pianist. Leonard Bernstein took his place.