François Devienne: Sinfonie Concertante for 2 Clarinets, in B flat major, Op.25

Details

Description

François Devienne - Sinfonie Concertante for 2 Clarinets in B flat major, Op. 25, Consortium Classicum (Dieter Klöcker, Waldemar Wandel -Clarinets), North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wolf-Dieter Hauschild (conductor)
I. Allgero con spirito – 00:00
II. Adagio – 12:05
III. Rondeau – 18:26
François Devienne (31 January 1759 – 5 September 1803) was a French composer and professor for flute at the Paris Conservatory.

“François Devienne came from a humble background, the fourteenth and youngest child of the owner of a saddlery shop. His musical gifts were noticed when, at the age of ten, he provided the accompanying harmonies for a church mass during the performance of which he also played the flute. At that stage he was learning to play the flute and the bassoon. It is not known where he studied composition, but he obviously received a thorough training. Soon his works were being published in France, and it was not long before his path led him to Paris. As flautist at the "Loge Olympique" he made himself familiar with the works of Haydn and in 1782 he was permitted to produce a Concert Spirituel. Critics praised his natural flute technique and brilliant, elegant playing. In 1789 he was engaged as first bassoon at the "Theatre de Monsieur", where he remained until his death.
According to contemporaries, Devienne was an elegant, delightful musician of excellent taste, and this is evident from the freshness of his melodies and the resourcefulness of his harmonies. Many of the compositions praised by his contemporaries have disappeared, so that it is impossible to evaluate his youthful works. Nowadays his name is known as a brilliant executant and a composer of duos, trios and quartets. Yet his contemporaries knew him as an all-round talent and valued his operas and especially his "symphonies concertantes", which were extremely well written and exciting, with quite a cosmo-politan character; they show a marked influence from Mozart and Haydn mingled with elements of the Mannheim school, whose chief exponents (e.g. Stamitz) added their own Bohemian influence. Devienne's works, like those of many of his successful contemporaries, were disseminated in various arrangements through-out Europe, so that they are found in libraries all over the continent. In all his lasting compositions the wind predominates; it was in writing for wind instruments that he had his most felicitous ideas and liveliest inspirations.
It should also be pointed out that these three pieces (from the album) were made available to us in manuscript sources: the cadenza in the double concerto for two clarinets, amusingly nicknamed in handwriting "The little troublemaker", is a piece of experimental writing which could have been written by a much later Romantic composer, and is really astonishing for a work of 1794 — it was in fact his Op. 25, written in Paris.” (by Dieter Klöcker)