Sabine Meyer- Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, Sinfonia Concertante K. 297b
Mozart's special affection for the clarinet found heartfelt expression in one of his last works, the Concerto in A major. Sabine Meyer performs it, as the composer intended, on the deeper-pitched basset clarinet. "The music is so simple, so easy, and let so deep emotionally - like a religion", she has said. Like the Quintet K. 581, the Clarinet Concerto was originally written for basset clarinet, a now obsolete instrument especially designed by Stadler with an extended lower register. Although the autograph score is lost (the earliest surviving edition is a 19th-century adaptation for standard clarinet), many modern-day clarinettists have made guesses as to how Mozart originally wrote the clarinet part, based on the composer's surviving sketches. One of the first to explore the concerto on a modern reconstruction of a basset clarinet was Sabine Meyer. German-born Meyer's successful career as soloist and chamber musician has always had Mozart at it's core. Her many recordings to date