Bernhard Henrik Crusell - Clarinet Concerto No.2 in F-minor, Op.5 (c. 1817)

Picture: Marcus Larson - Nattlig marin Bernhard Henrik Crusell (15 October 1775 – 28 July 1838) was a Swedish-Finnish clarinetist, composer and translator, “the most significant and internationally best-known Finnish-born classical composer and indeed, — the outstanding Finnish composer before Sibelius“. Work: Clarinet Concerto No.2 in F-minor, Op.5 (c. 1817) Dedicated to tsar Alexander I of Russia. Mov.I: Allegro 00:00 : Andante pastorale 11:23 : Rondo: Allegretto 16:52 Clarinet: Per Billman Orchestra: Uppsala Kammarorkester Conductor: Gérard Korsten Crusell’s Concerto in F minor, Opus 5, has been dated to 1815. It was dedicated to Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, and published, when the necessary permission had been granted, in 1818. The choice of key and the nature of the thematic material make of this work something very different. The first movement is again in the expected form, with an orchestral exposition dominated by the principal theme, leading to the entry of the soloist. Again in the solo writing there is a full use of the resources of the instrument and the composer’s own virtuosity as a performer, with the two characteristic registers of the clarinet exploited at once, before the development of the theme by the solo instrument. The key of F minor allows an additional element of drama and occasional poignancy that is very much of its period. A portrait of the composer painted in the 1820s by Johan Gustaf Sandberg shows him holding the score of the concerto with the principal theme of the first movement seen in the music he is holding, a suggestion of its importance to him. The D flat major slow movement, an Andante pastorale in a lilting 9/8 metre, gives a chance for display of another kind, in its dynamic changes and contrasts, with final echo effects that offer, incidentally, a further technical challenge in the demand for the softest playing imaginable, as the clarinet answers the orchestra. The movement is followed by a final F minor Rondo of great charm, ending in a positive F major.