Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio makes his solo debut with the Houston Symphony playing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. In this post he explains what makes this piece such a joy and a challenge to play.
When I was asked which concerto I would like to present as my first to the Houston audience, I chose the Mozart Concerto because it seemed like the obvious choice. It is one of Mozart’s last completed works and premiered in October 1791, just two months before he died. Most importantly, it remains the best concerto in the clarinet repertoire. It is also thought to be compositionally perfect and truly one of the greatest (if not the greatest) of all of Mozart’s compositions.
From the soloist’s standpoint, it can be overwhelming. Mozart, as a performer, was as much of an improviser as the famed jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and was thus very simple in his composition technique, expecting improvised cadenzas and embellishments in his music. This is the challenge for each performer: to perform music in the style of Mozart, even though much of that music does not exist in print. The artist must be spontaneously creative and “personalize” his or her performance.
I have heard it stated by a world-renowned pianist that he would much prefer playing five Rachmaninoff concertos (known for their difficulty) than one Mozart concerto. Sometimes the simplicity, creativity and clarity of Mozart’s music is much more difficult to achieve than the volume of notes created by many seemingly more difficult compositions. When I first learned this concerto in high school, not only did I not know this, but I could not have imagined having to play notes that weren’t on the page.
The concerto was actually written for a basset clarinet, one of only two pieces written for this instrument that extends the range a third below the modern soprano clarinet. Because there is no autographed copy of the concerto, it is only a guess that the piece was written for this extended-range clarinet. It is still performed often on the modern clarinet, and after much thought, I have chosen to perform it on a modern instrument.
The concerto is 30 minutes of the most beautiful music I ever get to play, and I hope you will feel the same.
Don’t miss Mark Nuccio’s performances of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto! Get tickets and more information at houstonsymphony.org.
