Mozart’s special affection for the clarinet found heartfelt expression in one of his last works, the Concerto in A major. Sabine Meyer performs it, as the composer intended, on the deeper-pitched basset clarinet. “The music is so simple, so easy, and let so deep emotionally – like a religion”, she has said.
Like the Quintet K. 581, the Clarinet Concerto was originally written for basset clarinet, a now obsolete instrument especially designed by Stadler with an extended lower register. Although the autograph score is lost (the earliest surviving edition is a 19th-century adaptation for standard clarinet), many modern-day clarinettists have made guesses as to how Mozart originally wrote the clarinet part, based on the composer’s surviving sketches. One of the first to explore the concerto on a modern reconstruction of a basset clarinet was Sabine Meyer. German-born Meyer’s successful career as soloist and chamber musician has always had Mozart at its core. Her many recordings to date include acclaimed accounts of the Clarinet Quintet, numerous serenades, and two versions of the much-loved Clarinet Concerto.
Completing the album is the exquisite Sinfonia concertante in E-flat with its quartet of soloists.
