Johann simon hermstedt biography of michael
SPOHR: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in C Minor; Clarinet Concerto no. 2 in E-flat Major; Potpourri in F Major, Op. 80; Variations in B-flat Major – Michael Collins, clarinet/ Swedish Chamber Orchestra/ Robin O’Neill – Hyperion
Louis Spohr (1784-1859) achieved a major reputation in German music-making during the first half of the 19th Century. Spohr takes credit for having risen from the first violinist’s desk to assume the conductor’s role in leading an ensemble. In 1805 Spohr accepted the post of Music Director at the court of Gotha, where in 1808 he met clarinet virtuoso Johann Simon Hermstedt (1778-1846), the wind band director at the court of Sondershausen. Over the course of two years, Spohr would compose eight major pieces for Hermstedt, whose fellowship and musicianship Spohr found perfectly congenial, since both were Freemasons who adored and performed Mozart’s music. Their friendship was sealed after they collaborated in a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.
The C Minor Concerto (1812) begins with a slow introduction and has an abbreviated ritornello, the soloist entering after eight bars. The compression continues throughout the movement, the second subject having been derived from the opening material. The Adagio plays as a lovely intermezzo, with violins and celli in support of the solo. The Rondo is lively and knotty, and the solo gets a real workout running up and down the chromatic scale back to C Minor. The Potpourri in F Major (1811) draws upon two arias from an opera by Peter von Winter entitled The Interrupted Feast-Offering. Part of the opening aria sounds like Yankee Doodle. Some tricky trills and leaps in register make this a b
Spohr: Clarinet Concertos Nos 3 & 4
Description
This disc is a long-awaited sequel to Hyperion’s disc of Spohr’s Clarinet Concertos Nos 1 & 2, recorded by the same forces. It was at Gotha in the autumn of 1808 that Spohr met the clarinet virtuoso Johann Simon Hermstedt, and the two men hit it off straight away. Spohr immediately began work on his first clarinet concerto. Hermstedt was so taken by the work that—rather than insisting on the composer modifying some of his more outlandish, and unplayable, demands—he adapted and expanded his instrument to suit the music, thus bringing about important developments in the range and flexibility of the clarinet, expanding it from five keys to thirteen. Of the four concertos Spohr wrote for Hermstedt, the Third is the most overtly virtuosic, with a fiery restless energy supporting grand, sweeping themes of real distinction. The Fourth ranks among Spohr’s finest compositions.Tracklisting
- 1. Concerto for Clarinet no 3 in F minor, WoO. 19: 1st movement, Allegro moderato
- 2. Concerto for Clarinet no 3 in F minor, WoO. 19: 2nd movement, Adagio
- 3. Concerto for Clarinet no 3 in F minor, WoO. 19: 3rd movement, Vivace non troppo
- 4. Concerto for Clarinet no 4 in E minor, WoO 20: 1st movement, Allegro Vivace
- 5. Concerto for Clarinet no 4 in E minor, WoO 20: 2nd movement, Larghetto
- 6. Concerto for Clarinet no 4 in E minor, WoO 20: 3rd movement, Rondo al espagnol
Disc 1
Side 1
Spohr, who was born in Brunswick on 5 April 1784 and died in Kassel on 22 October 1859, was a twenty-year-old violin virtuoso who shot to fame after receiving rapturous reviews for a concert in Leipzig on 10 December 1804. The following year the young composer was offered the post of Music Director at the enlightened court of Gotha and, at twenty-one, he became the youngest incumbent of such a position in the whole of Germany. So worried were his Gotha employers by his youth that they publicly declared him to be a few years older—a perhaps necessary stratagem when deference to age and experience was the norm.
It was at Gotha in the autumn of 1808 that Spohr met the clarinet virtuoso Johann Simon Hermstedt (1778– 1846), the wind band director at the nearby court of Günther Friedrich Carl, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. Hermstedt’s princely employer despatched his clarinettist to Gotha to commission a concerto from Spohr and the two men hit it off straight away. Both worshipped Mozart, both were Freemasons like their hero, and Hermstedt had originally trained as a violinist, so they had a lot in common. The friendship was probably cemented more firm Powell, M. Spohr's Music To The Clarinet. Spohr Journal, 1, 5-10 PDFCopyright:
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