A friend of Schumann and Brahms, Carl Reinecke was a well-known and prolific composer, writing music in every genre. Although today his other works have drifted into obscurity, Reinecke’s chamber music for clarinet has retained its popularity, especially the Trio op 264 and the Sonata ‘Undine’ op 167b.Tonight’s work, the Introduction and allegro appassionato op 256 for clarinet and piano was a late composition, published in 1901 and dedicated to the famous clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. The piece illustrates Reinecke’s skill in exploiting the many and varied moods of the clarinet while the fiery allegro appassionato in particular requires virtuoso playing from both performers.

Allegro moderato
Adagio (Caoine)
Allegretto grazioso

Born to a prosperous family in Dublin in 1852, Stanford met family resistance to his desire to become a musician. His father accepted that Charles would never follow him into law but insisted that his reluctant son complete a degree in Classics at Cambridge (he came 65th out of 66 in his finals) before allowing him to study music in Leipzig. Stanford went on to combine a prolific composing career (including seven symphonies and nine operas) with a professorship at the newly-founded Royal College of Music which he held for over 40 years. His pupils included Vaughan Williams, Coleridge Taylor and Holst. His teaching style, however, was idiosyncratic as Edgar Bainton, another pupil recalled. ‘Stanford’s teaching seemed to be without method or plan. His criticism consisted for the most part of “I like it, my boy,” or “It’s damned ugly, my boy” (the latter in most cases). In this, perhaps, lay its value. For in spite of his conservatism, and he was intensely and passionately conservative in music as in politics, his amazingly comprehensive knowledge of musical literature of all nations and ages made one feel that his opinions, however irritating, had weight.’

Stanford was, by all accounts, a rather difficult character, prone to professional bitterness as he witnessed pupils and younger composers such as Elgar overshadow him. He is said to have plotted to remove Sullivan as conductor of the Leeds Triennial Festival and complained of Elgar that ‘cut off from his contemporaries by his [Roman Catholic] religion and his want of regular academic training, he was lucky enough to enter the field and find the preliminary ploughing done.’ Having even fallen out with his great friend and Director of the RCM, Hubert Parry, Stanford’s health began to deteriorate after the First World War (from which many old pupils, such as George Butterworth, never returned) and the music of his final years was received with little enthusiasm.

Much of his best music, such as this Clarinet Sonata, drew inspiration from Stanford’s Irish roots. George Bernard Shaw commented that he abominated ‘Stanford the Professor’ but much admired ‘Stanford the Celt.’ The Clarinet Sonata was completed in 1911 but not performed until 1916. The influence of Brahms is obvious but the slow movement, a lament for the dead entitled ‘Caoine’ (pronounced ‘keen’, from the Old Irish caoineadh  – to cry, to weep) reveals a more deeply-felt, personal voice. The opening movement is in standard sonata form, the themes skilfully divided between clarinet and piano. The spirit of Brahms returns in the closing Allegretto grazioso in which the dark-hued, autumnal lower register of the clarinet is explored to great effect. The sonata gradually winds down to end in a mood of hushed tranquillity.

Allegro appassionato
Andante un poco adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Vivace

As a direct result of his friendship with the virtuoso clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, Brahms composed four late works for clarinet: in 1891 the Clarinet Trio op 114 and the Clarinet Quintet op 115 and, in 1894, two sonatas for clarinet and piano op 120 nos. 1 and 2. The two sonatas were Brahms’ last chamber works, and were first performed by  Mühlfeld in 1895 to great acclaim. These works, in F minor and E flat major, were very influential and stimulated a renewed interest in compositions for the solo clarinet.

His position on the Board of the Paris Conservatoire obliged Debussy occasionally to officiate at examinations as adjudicator and composer. In this latter capacity he was asked, in 1910, to write two examination pieces for clarinet, which he did with some initial reluctance. This everyday functional task, however, produced the short Petit pièce and the Première rapsodie which was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. The Première rapsodie has since become one of the best-known and most highly-regarded works in the clarinet repertoire and gives full rein to the capabilities both of the instrument and of the performer. Debussy himself was so pleased with the reception of the Rapsodie that he orchestrated it two years later and said it was one of his ‘most pleasing’ works.

Born in Wisconsin, the prolific young American composer Abbie Betinis now lives in Minnesota where Rhapsodos was commissioned. It was written for tonight’s recitalists, Michael Collins and Michael McHale, who gave the first performance of the piece in 2016 at the Schubert Club in St Paul, Minnesota.

Betinis based the work on ancient Greek epic poetry, in particular The Odyssey, with the clarinet reflecting the rhythmic accents and melodic contour of the original verse. The piano part is written to give context and describes emotional reactions to the movement of the sea, Penelope’s weaving skills, and nostalgia for home.

Allegretto ben moderato
Allegro
Ben moderato:Recitativo-fantasia
Allegretto poco mosso

The Sonata in A major for violin and piano was written in 1886 as a wedding gift for the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, since when it has never been out of the concert repertoire and is one of Franck’s best-known chamber works. The sonata is a perfect fusion between the violin (or clarinet in tonight’s performance) and the piano, the writing for which is notable for its extreme difficulty. The work is cyclic, with the first movement’s peaceful nostalgic theme recurring, in different forms, throughout. The theme comes into its own again in the fourth movement in repeated canonic imitation between the instruments, which eventually brings the work to a triumphant conclusion.

The main theme of the sonata is among the chief contenders for the theme of the fictional ‘Vinteuil Sonata’ (also for violin and piano) described by Marcel Proust in Un amour de Swann, from the first volume of À la recherche du temps perdu.