Spohr Society

[John H White]

The 40th annual issue of the Spohr  Journal is out now. It contains, amongst other articles, a history of the publication of Spohr's 4 clarinet concertos together with a full discography of them extending over 2 A4 pages. I had no idea they had been recorded so many times, yet they still remain a great rarity in the concert hall. Anyone interested in joining the Spohr Society of Great Britain, should get in touch with the secretary Chris Tutt( chtsheffield@yahoo.co.uk) Annual subs. work out at £7 for UK, £9 or 10 Euros for EU countries and £12 or 20 US dollars for the rest of the world, for which you get 4 Quarterly newsletters, together with the afore mentioned slim Journal.

[giles.enders]

Clarinet concertos by most composers are a rarity in the concert hall.  It is a great shame.  What is even more rare and a little early for this forum are partitas which I would love to hear live performances of.

[John H White]

Having read through the article, it would appear that the only one where the original autograph score is now available is No 4 in E minor. Hermstedt, for whom all 4 concertos were written, seems not to have approved of this one possibly because it makes too much use of the " bad notes" in the upper register of the A clarinet.