The Last Concerto 1791: Clarinet Concerto KV622 / La clemenza di Tito, K621 - highlights / etc

"We're hardly lacking for pretty-toned mezzo-sopranos these days, but Joyce DiDonato has more than just a lovely voice - she's got what showbiz folks call 'pizzazz'. The electric charge generated by her singing is powerful enough to make the most jaded opera-goer sit up and listen; it's such a strong charge, in fact, that it jolts even from a recording. Not that she's a scene-stealing scenerychewer, however. She simply invests herself so fully in whatever she's singing that well worn roles like Rosina or Cherubino are given startling new depth." Gramophone, August, 2006

In 1992, a program for a concert given by Anton Stadler in Riga in March of 1794 was discovered, where he played the Mozart Clarinet Concerto. Amazingly, this program includes an engraving of the special "Inventions Klarinette", or basset clarinet, that Stadler had with him to play Mozart's music. Up until this time, no one knew what the basset clarinet looked like, and it came as a shock to see a long instrument with a bulbous bell on the end. This new release on the Glossa label is the first time the work will appear played on an instrument like what Stadler possessed.

In this recording Mozart's music for the clarinet and basset horn is heard in various settings, and all the works are associated with the clarinettist Anton Stadler (1753-1812). The Clarinet Concerto is the composer's last concerto work, and shows the depth of his mature style. The selections from the opera La Clemenza di Tito date from the same period (1791), representing yet another musical form. Lastly, the two works associated with the Masons, the Adagio and the Maurerische Trauermusik, illustrate the quasi-religious underpinnings of the masonic movement expressed through the music's majestic solemnity.

Listening on the same disc to the marvellous timbres of both Eric Hoeprich's clarinet and Joyce DiDonato's voice is a sublime experience.