The Clarinet Concerto, K. 622 "represents a triumphant manifestation of the widespread eighteenth-century desire to appeal both to amateurs of music and to connoisseurs."¹ The creation of the masterpiece was decisively influenced by the friendship of W. A. Mozart with Anton Stadler who was a great clarinet virtuoso of his time. Stadler owned a special sort of an instrument, nowadays called basset clarinet which lower register was extended by a major third down to c (with respect to the soprano clarinet). Mozart composed the concerto for this instrument. In 1801, an unknown editor published an arrangement for soprano clarinet in A. Since then, the concerto was predominantly played in this version, which is considered to be traditional, although it is certainly not the original. Thus, the Neue Mozart Ausgabe in the edition by Franz Giegling² provides two versions of the orchestra score of the concerto which differ in their clarinet parts only: (I.) Reconstructed version for basset clarinet and (II.) traditional version for soprano clarinet in A.

The current project provides both versions of the first movement Allegro, which are dynamicaly displayed on demand. The essential part is the comparison of the traditional and reconstructed versions of the clarinet part. In addition, suggestions for the ornamentation of cadenzas as well as alternative readings are provided for an interactive use. The score is encoded in MEI format and rendered by Verovio.

For further information cf.: Oleksii Sapov, „Refactoring KV 622: ein Fassungsvergleich von Mozarts Klarinettenkonzert mit digitalen Methoden“, in: Rohrblatt 34 (2019) Heft 1, S. 12-14.

For more works by W. A. Mozart published in MEI-format cf. the Digital Interactive Mozart Edition.

¹ Lawson, Colin: Mozart Clarinet Concerto. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996, p. IX.