Concertos for Clarinet and Orchestra No. 3, 4, 5, 6 / Duo concertante

Friederike Roth, the energetic clarinetist of the Berolina Ensemble of musical explorers, has again made a new discovery. With reinforcements from the Orchestra of the Brandenburg State Theatre in Cottbus, she surprises us with four clarinet concertos by Ivan Müller (Iwan Müller), who was second to none in his contributions to the development of the clarinet during the early years of the nineteenth century. His clarinette omnitonique first enabling chromatic playing on more than four octaves was greeted with enthusiasm by contemporary virtuosos in Europe’s music capitals. To highlight the advantages of his invention, he wrote a number of solo concertos and in this way demonstrated not only his forward-looking spirit of invention but also a fine intuition for highly effective music of the highest quality and with a popular flair. Müller was ahead of his times; it was not until almost thirty years later that the chromatic clarinet was approved by a commission at the Paris Conservatory. Ivan Müller, born to German parents, first registered his musical presence at the court of the tsars in St. Petersburg. The Concerto in A minor of melancholy character and with brooding Slavic passages underscores this fact. The festive Fifth Concerto includes timpani and trumpets, and its highly original treatment of the woodwinds already anticipates the romanticism of a Carl Maria von Weber.