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Virtuoso display and tangible tenderness: between circus and caress

Carl Maria von Weber had a love supreme for the clarinet. Just like Mozart with Stadler and Brahms with Mühlfeld, Weber had a bosom pal – Heinrich Bärmann, the solo clarinet of the Munich court orchestra – for whom he wrote music to measure. It is not clear whether Bärmann has anything to do with it, but in addition to very virtuosic, Weber's clarinet music can also be extremely theatrical, although the slow movements usually remain icons of intimacy in which Weber uses the cantabile qualities of the clarinet to caress with his instrument.

In this programme Weber is combined with a clarinet quintet by his inspirator Bärmann, and with the lyrical clarinet quintet by Andreas Romberg, contemporary of both gentlemen.

This repertoire on the cusp between circus and caress is right up the alley of the Roeland Hendrikx Ensemble: just listen to their acclaimed CD (from 2017) with Weber and Bärmann. According to the Dutch professional magazine Luister (9/10), Roeland Hendrikx and his ensemble play "with grace and self-confidence", as a result of which they play in a way that "stimulates the imagination". De Standaard (****) reports "wonderful playing" that "responds perfectly to Weber's early Romantic intentions".

Carl Maria von Weber - Introductie, thema en variaties opus post.

Heinrich Bärmann - Klarinetkwintet nr. 3 in Es

Andreas Romberg - Klarinetkwintet opus 57

Carl Maria von Weber - Gran Quintetto opus 34