Weber Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Clarinet Concertino & Horn Concertino City Of London Sinfonia & Michael Collins

• Carl Maria von Weber (1786 - 1826): Clarinet Concertino in E-Flat Major, Op. 26, J. 109:
• 1 Weber: Clarinet Concertino in E-Flat Major, Op. 26, J. 109: I. Adagio, ma non troppo 02:20
• 2 Weber: Clarinet Concertino in E-Flat Major, Op. 26, J. 109: II. Tema con Variazioni. Andante 04:40
• 3 Weber: Clarinet Concertino in E-Flat Major, Op. 26, J. 109: III. Allegro 02:08
• Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 73, J. 114:
• 4 Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 73, J. 114: I. Allegro 07:51
• 5 Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 73, J. 114: II. Adagio, ma non troppo 07:10
• 6 Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 73, J. 114: III. Rondo. Allegretto 05:45
• Horn Concertino in E Minor, Op. 45, J. 188:
• 7 Weber: Horn Concertino in E Minor, Op. 45, J. 188: I. Adagio 01:48
• 8 Weber: Horn Concertino in E Minor, Op. 45, J. 188: II. Andante con moto 06:02
• 9 Weber: Horn Concertino in E Minor, Op. 45, J. 188: III. Cadenza 02:49
• 10 Weber: Horn Concertino in E Minor, Op. 45, J. 188: IV. Alla Polacca 05:05
• Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74, J. 118:
• 11 Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74, J. 118: I. Allegro 08:21
• 12 Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74, J. 118: II. Andante con moto 07:18
• 13 Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74, J. 118: III. Alla Polacca 06:03
• Total Runtime 01:07:20

Info for Weber Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Clarinet Concertino & Horn Concertino

On this recording, the exclusive Chandos artist, Michael Collins, plays the clarinet in three works for clarinet and orchestra by Weber, as well as conducting the City of London Sinfonia. The disc also includes Weber’s horn concertino, featuring the soloist Stephen Stirling.

The two concertos and the concertino for clarinet and orchestra are considered among the repertoire cornerstones for today’s clarinettists. Weber wrote the works for his personal friend Heinrich Bärmann, the principal clarinettist of the Munich court orchestra, whose own embellishments of the works (changes of articulation, extra grace notes, and even an added accompanied cadenza in the first concerto) have been incorporated in the performances recorded here. Michael Collins suggests that these changes ‘do not make the music any easier to play, but they do make it more thrilling’.

Each of the works displays a well-balanced mix of virtuosity, daring, humour, and sheer beauty, and throughout, the role of the orchestra is much more than a mere accompaniment. The woodwind solos, a trio of horns, blaring trumpets, and dashing violins contribute greatly to making these works so captivating.

Written in 1806, when Weber was just nineteen years old, the virtuosic Horn Concertino pushed known horn techniques to new limits, requiring the soloist among other feats to produce a ‘four-note chord’, the technique known as multiphonics. The work is today considered a gem in the horn repertoire, and our soloist, Stephen Stirling, is ‘a player gifted with the utmost sensitivity and imagination, which is shown through the beautiful way he shapes musical phrases and the extraordinary range of colours he employs’ – in the words of the late Richard Hickox.

"Collins, acting as both soloist and conductor, offers dazzling performances that make use of the elaborations Baermann made to the clarinet part. He is equally at home in the intimate lyricism of Weber's slow movement as he is in the brilliance of the writing elsewhere...[Stirling] rises to the challenge of the extreme technical demands [of the Concertino]" (BBC Music Magazin)

"straightforward and sunny - bright and playful performances of the clarinet works (Michael Collins conducts himself) and Stephen Stirling evidently enjoying himself in the Horn Concertino and its tricky cadenza." (Gramophone Magazine)

"At first listening this might not seem to be the most sheerly virtuosic playing on the market, partly because Collins does not restrict himself to what he can do smoothly, his dynamic range or his staccato speed just past their safe limit when his sense of the music's drama requires it...It is hardly self-evident that a new release of these famiiar works will find something new to say" (International Record Review)

Michael Collins, clarinet, conductor
Stephen Stirling, horn
City of London Sinfonia

Michael Collins
is one of the most complete musicians of his generation. With a continuing, distinguished career as a soloist, he has in recent years also become highly regarded as a conductor. He is Artistic Director in Residence of the London Mozart Players, and from 2010 – 2018 he was the Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia. Recent guest conducting and play-directing highlights have included engagements with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

Recent highlights include a return to the Philharmonia Orchestra as conductor; performances worldwide with orchestras including Minnesota Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Rheinische Philharmonie, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra and Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, and tours in South Africa, Australia (with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), Japan and Mexico (with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional).

Michael celebrates his 60th Birthday in 2022 and has given commemorative concerts at Wigmore Hall and at Queen Elizabeth Hall with the London Mozart Players. He was also interviewed for a double page spread in Gramophone Magazine. In January 2021 Michael gave the debut performance of new ensemble Wigmore Soloists, a new Associate Ensemble funded by the Wigmore Hall. Led by Michael Collins and violinist Isabelle van Keulen, Wigmore Soloists will see leading international instrumentalists coming together to perform a wide range of chamber music repertoire, from duets to works for up to 10 musicians. The ensemble released the Schubert Octet on disc in 2021 to great acclaim (BIS Records).

Michael Collins has been committed to expanding the repertoire of the clarinet for many years. He has given premières of works such as John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons, Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto – for which he won a Gramophone award for his recording on Deutsche Grammophon – and Brett Dean’s Ariel’s Music and Turnage’s Riffs and Refrains, which was commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra. Collins has gone on to perform Turnage’s work with the Residentie Orkest, Royal Flanders and Helsinki Philharmonics, as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Collins has received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award in 2007 in recognition of his pivotal role in premièring repertoire by some of today’s most highly regarded composers.

In great demand as a chamber musician, Collins performs regularly with the Borodin, Heath and Belcea quartets, András Schiff, Martha Argerich, Stephen Hough, Mikhail Pletnev, Lars Vogt, Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis. His ensemble, London Winds, celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2018 and the group maintains a busy diary with high calibre engagements such as the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival, Edinburgh Festival, City of London Festival, Cheltenham International Festival and Bath Mozartfest. During the 2019-20 season he will be an Artist in Residence at the Wigmore Hall which will include concerts with Stephen Hough, the Vienna Piano Trio, Leonard Elschenbroich, Michael McHale and the Borodin Quartet.

Michael Collins records for Chandos, and in his prolific recording career he has covered an extraordinarily wide range of solo repertoire, which also includes releases on Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI and Sony. He is one of the world’s most recorded clarinettists, having made no fewer than twenty discs for Chandos alone. His most recent release is of Brahms Sonatas with Stephen Hough, and previously, released in July 2020 with BIS Records, a disc featuring Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5 and Finzi’s Concerto for Clarinet and Strings with Philharmonia Orchestra, directed by Michael. The disc received multiple five star reviews in Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine (“This rather unusual coupling owes its existence to a world-class clarinettist”) alongside rave reviews on BBC Radio 3 and an exclusive interview in Presto Magazine. Collins’ previous disc, released May 2019, was of Concertante works by Strauss, with Collins as conductor and soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tasmin Little, Julie Price and Michael McHale. Other recent releases include a disc of Crusell Clarinet Concertos with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, which was Gramophone Magazine’s ‘Recording of the Month’ in June 2018 and was nominated for BBC Music Magazine Award; and a disc of British Clarinet Concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra which features Collins as soloist and conductor. In 2017 he was awarded a Grammy for his disc ‘Shakespeare Songs’ with Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano (‘Best Classical Solo Vocal Album’).

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2015, Michael Collins was awarded an MBE for his services to music. He plays on Yamaha clarinets.

March 2022 Please do not use this biography if it is more than three months old.

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