Weber Clarinet Concertos Nos 1 & 2; Der Freischütz – ‘Leise, leise, fromme Weise’ (arr. Tarkmann); Variations on a theme from Silvana (arr. Schottstädt) Roeland Hendrikx (clarinet); Rheinische Philharmonie/Michel Tilkin Evil Penguin EPRC 0053 66:15 mins
Like Mozart before him and Brahms after, Weber wrote all his important clarinet works for a single outstanding player – in his case, Heinrich Baermann, the clarinettist of the Munich court orchestra. Baermann took an active role in shaping the solo part of Weber’s concertos, adding decorations and contributing a large-scale cadenza to the First Concerto’s opening movement. The Belgian clarinettist Roeland Hendrikx adopts all of Baermann’s additions, but has furthermore commissioned the composer Andreas Tarkmann to write a full-scale cadenza for the last movement.
Prompted by the patently operatic nature of both concertos, Tarkmann also provides an inventive arrangement of Agathe’s second-act aria ‘Leise, leise’ from Weber’s masterpiece Der Freischütz, making free use of the passages in recitative style that separate the aria’s verses in the original aria.
The variations on a theme from Weber’s earlier opera Silvana are no masterpiece, but by using Baermann’s decorations for the repeats Hendrikx saves them from tedium. His compatriot Michel Tilkin conducts the Rheinische Philharmonie sympathetically, and Hendrikx plays brilliantly throughout, rattling off the dizzying final pages of the Second Concerto at breakneck speed.
Misha Donat
