Listen to Clarinet Concerto (Part 1): The Offical Edward Gregson Web Site

Listen: Clarinet Concerto (Part 1)

My Clarinet Concerto was commissioned by the BBC and was completed in 1994. It was first performed by Michael Collins (for whom the work was specially written) with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Adrian Leaper, at the BBC Concert Hall, Manchester.

The work is in two parts and lasts for about 30 minutes. It is scored for large symphony orchestra, without clarinets except for a bass clarinet, which plays an important role in ‘shadowing’ the soloist. Part One opens with the solo clarinet in a cadenza-like introduction, gradually joined by the orchestra, in which most of the main material of the concerto is announced in embryonic form. The main allegro section follows, which has a sonata-form outline with two main thematic ideas announced, developed, and recapitulated. However, there is a constant process of thematic metamorphosis, so that when the second theme is heard again near the end it has been transformed into something quite different. The final bars, with their punctuated dissonant rythms, leave the music hanging in the air, unresolved.

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