“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” So wrote Aldous Huxley back in 1931 in his essay ‘The rest is silence’.
And one of the composers who comes closest to expressing the inexpressible has to be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His sublime quintet for clarinet and strings touches a place few composers access. Written towards the end of his short life, its mellifluous tones transport listeners far from the concerns and mundanities of quotidian life. And my goodness, how we need that!
Originally written for his friend the clarinettist Anton Stadler, Mozart himself performed alongside Stadler in the premiere of the work in Vienna in December 1788. On that occasion Stadler played the quintet on the basset clarinet – the instrument he championed and had helped to design together with the imperial court instrument maker Theodor Lotz.
Fiori will be replicating this performance when they join forces next Friday with distinguished historical clarinettist Colin Lawson CBE to perform this hauntingly nostalgic work.
Lawson (who was until recently head of the Royal College of Music) is THE authority on the basset clarinet, as well as being a noted Mozart scholar. So Fiori’s concert at Deddington next Friday with Lawson on basset clarinet will be a unique opportunity to hear this wonderful music with an internationally renowned artist, playing this much loved work in as authentic way as possible.
Lawson is also a superb raconteur so concert goers will doubtless be regaled with tales about Stadler and Mozart, besides being treated to one of Stadler’s Caprices for solo basset clarinet – a hilariously insouciant piece that freely steals tunes from other composers’ works – including from Mozart.
This special concert takes place in the delightful Oxfordshire church of St Peter & St Paul, Deddington near Banbury.
Tickets on the door or online from ticketsource.com/fiori
Recipe of the month
Chicken Kiev
Pears poached in red wine