Search - Felix [1] Mendelssohn, Carl [Composer] Baermann, Consortium Classicum :: Mendelssohn: Complete Clarinet Chamber Music

Wonderful Mendelssohn.

Donald G. Hite III | Houston, Tx USA | 08/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a really great CD. The 2 Concert Pieces are amazing compositions (particularly op. 113), and the lightning fast playing will astound you, especially in the basset horn part. The players work well together on these exciting pieces.



The Sonata is a piece many consider to be subpar, which I tend to agree with. It has some good moments, but overall it feels like Mendelssohn was just going through the motions when composing it. It's structurally sound, but lacks interest and inventiveness. That being said, Klocker adds a good amount of embellishment in this piece. While his changes don't alter the pieces so-so writing, they do make it more interesting and worth listening to.



I personally think Mr. Klocker has one of the best sounds of any recorded clarinetist I've heard. His peformances here (along with the pianist and fellow clarinetist) are just about flawless. I highly recommend this CD."

Musical treasures that wait for you!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 09/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Unlike Brahms, Mendelssohn's chamber music has always shadowed by his Symphonic works (Italian, Scotch and the Fifth), his celebrated and well reminded "Midnight summer's dream ", "The hebrides" and his Violin Concerto in e minor Op. 64.



Despite this factor, we should not forget that probably after Schubert, Mendelssohn's chamber music was probably the most lyrical, candid and egregious expression of the joyfulness and love for life after Mozart. But Mendelssohn was a happy man who never lived oppressed by economical limitations or depressive states. He was a cultivated artist who portrayed and expressed without any hindrance, musical ideas filled of majestic splendor and radiant lyricism.



His most celebrated chamber work is his Octet, although his set of string quartets is emblematic (obviously, they lack the expressive depth of Beethoven). His clarinet sonata is a youthful composition where the clarinet plays a singing role with brief appearances as soloist instrument. But his both compositions for clarinet and bassoon remark the cantabile line featured by the clarinet and the bassoon works out as background support.



One of his most lovable and wonderfully well built Nocturne for eleven wind instruments, has not permeated yet the favoritism of the great audiences. That's why you should get close to these works whose musical merits transcend by far the reduced confinement in what they still remain.

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