Presents
Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Clarinet Quartet No.4 in B flat Major
In 1802, the Parisian music publisher Ignaz Pleyel brought out six clarinet quartets by his friend Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Pleyel (1757-1831) was almost an exact contemporary of Hoffmeister (1754-1812) as well as Mozart who was born in 1756. Pleyel had been a student of Haydn and a famous composer in his own right. Mozart had called him the 'Next Haydn'. But Pleyel eventually gave up composing, moved to Paris and founded a publishing company and a piano manufacturing company, both bearing his name. In a way, it is surprising that it was Pleyel and not Hoffmeister who published these quartets as Hoffmeister also founded a publishing firm, Bureau de Musique, which eventually became the famous firm of C.F. Peters. His firm was only the second firm in Vienna to publish music and was quite popular with Vienna's musician, amateur and professional. Besides his own works, Hoffmeister published works by Haydn, Dittersdorf and Vanhal among others. Today, he is only remembered as the person to whom Mozart had dedicated his famous Quartet K.499, and this was because Hoffmeister had loaned Mozart a considerable sum which Wolfgang never bothered to repay.
Pleyel published these quartets in two volumes each with a set of three quartets. Clarinet Quartet No.4 in B flat Major is the first quartet in the second volume. As was usually typical of such works from that era, the clarinetist has the lion's share of the thematic material and is also given the opportunity to show his technical prowess. The style and feel of the quartet are undeniably Mozartean. In three movements, it opens with an Allegro of the sort you might guess Mozart had written if you did not know better. Several scholars have pointed out that Hoffmeister may well have had the famous virtuoso clarinetist Anton Stadler in mind. It was Stadler for whom Mozart had composed his clarinet quintet. The middle movement, an Andante, has a set of variations in which each of the strings is given an opportunity to shine. The Finale is a Menuetto and contrasting trio.
We have reprinted a very clean and readable copy of the original published by Pleyel.
Parts: $19.95
