|
Anton Stadler (1753–1812) is primarily known today as ‘Mozart’s clarinettist’ for whom the composer conceived the clarinet parts for his Piano and Wind Quintet, K.452, Clarinet Trio, K.498, the Clarinet Quintet, K.581 and Clarinet Concerto, K.622. Other works by Mozart with clarinet and basset horn were written for Stadler, and with his playing in mind. Stadler can have known Mozart for only the ten years of the composer’s residency in Vienna, from 1781.
Important to our understanding of Stadler’s solo clarinet works was the early nineteenth-century Viennese interest in the quodlibet, a curious genre in which popular opera, ballet and folksong melodies were appropriated and provided with new texts, to create a pastiche of familiar music in new settings with coarse words reminiscent of the Viennese folk theatre.
|
