Presents
Bernhard Crusell
Quartet in D Major for Clarinet & Strings, Op.7
Virtually all of his compositions include the clarinet. His three quartets for clarinet, violin, viola and cello, an oboe quintet and a flute quintet are really his only chamber music. His third Clarinet Quartet dates from 1823 and differs from his earlier quartets in that it is the only one for a Clarinet in A and not B flat. The work was premiered to acclaim and was performed quite frequently throughout the 19th century. As might be expected, the writing is more advanced coming 20 years after the Second Quartet and can definitely be placed in the early Romantic era. While the clarinet is still primus inter pares, the strings are given a greater role than in the first two quartets. The outer movements have a military flavor and are full of excitement. The slow movement is elaborate and worked out in detail.
Bernhard Crusell (1775-1838) was born in town of Nystad (today's Uusikaupunki) founded by the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf on the Finnish coast. Despite his talent, his parents discouraged his interest in music, although he managed to teach himself to play the clarinet by ear. At age 13, he was finally allowed to take lessons from a military band officer in Helsinki. Soon after, he moved to Stockholm and established himself as a soloist, while serving as First Clarinet in the Royal Swedish Court Orchestra). By happy coincidence, the conductor was the German composer Abbé Vogler from whom Crusell started composition lessons, later studying in Berlin and with Gossec in Paris.
The quartet was published by Peters in 1823. We were fortunate to work off of a very clean copy of it to which we have added rehearsal numbers and corrected a few mistakes. It makes an excellent program choice.
Parts: $24.95
