Stamitz, Carl: Clarinet Concerto No. 10 in B flat major (AE256)

Stamitz, Carl (1745-1801)

The present work, designated No.10 in Michael Jacob's catalogue of the concertos in his study Die Klarinettenkonzerte von Carl Stamitz (Wiesbaden, Breitkopf und Härtel, 1991), was probably composed in Paris in the mid- to late-1770s. Unlike most of Stamitz's other clarinet concertos the work was not published in his lifetime, although Breitkopfs advertised it in their thematic catalogue supplement for 1781. This edition is based on one of the two surviving copies, a set of MS parts now preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek under the shelfmark S.m. 5867. The wrapper reads: Concerto / Clarinetto = Principale in B / Cornu = 1 mo: / Corno = 2do: in Es / Oboe = 1 mo: / Oboe = 2 do: / Violino = 1 mo: / Violino = 2 do / Viola / et / Basso. / Del Sigl: Stamitz. / Berlin . The copyist is familiar from several other Stamitz concertos in this collection. From the evidence of the other works he appears to have been a clarinettist and may have had access to sources close to the composer since his his MSS frequently contain superior readings to the printed sources. The copyist's short cadenzas to the first and second movements have not been included in this edition.

In the absence of both the autograph score and an authentic set of parts, this edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in the source. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardized throughout and, where missing, markings have been reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets where appropriate. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the MS is inconsistent at times in its notation of appoggiature ; these too have been standardized to minimize confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets. Allan Badley