Mozart
Mozart 1791 – Clarinet Concerto; Arias etc
Pierre Génisson (clarinet); Karine Deshayes (mezzo-soprano); Concerto Köln/Jakob Lehmann
Erato 5419773233 57:20 mins
This is interesting, and sometimes much more than interesting – though it’s probably best to draw a veil over the grim Requiem adaptation for multi-racked clarinets and what sounds like a jumbo-sized electronic celesta. When Mozart heard clarinettist Anton Stadler, it was the vocal quality of his playing that impressed him as much as Stadler’s agility and virtuoso élan. Hearing arias from The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte arranged for clarinet, finely played by Pierre Génisson, is a reminder of how close the human voice this instrument can come, to the point where it’s almost possible to forget the originals – almost, that is. Then, in the three numbers from La clemenza di Tito, the clarinet competes so effectively with mezzo Karine Deshayes that in the more restrained passages it more or less steals the show.Hearing the Clarinet Concerto in this context is a quite a refresher. Like the piano concertos, it’s full of quasi-operatic solo writing, yet one can also sense how much Mozart appreciated its greater sustaining power (pretty limited in 18th-century pianos). Génisson plays it beautifully: shifts in colour, light and shading and the wonderful contrasts in tone and character when the clarinet leaps from shining heights into dark, chocolatey depths and back again – this version really is as good an advert for the deeper ‘basset’ clarinet (Stadler’s preferred instrument) as any available today. The feeling one sometimes gets with basset versions, that the gain in the deeper registers comes at the cost of some ‘clarino’ brightness, isn’t conveyed here. In fact, Génisson and his instrument sound fully in command throughout its range. It’s a beguiling, but also a touching performance, and sympathetically recorded. Stephen Johnson
