...forthcoming on the Paladino label:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/klarinettenkonzerte/hnum/8298271 (https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/klarinettenkonzerte/hnum/8298271)
Can anyone fathom the cover?
(https://media1.jpc.de/image/w220/front/0/9120040731649.jpg)
Looks a bit like a boxing glove. Why - I couldn't say.
Free Library Philadelphia has his (first?) 3 concertos, I think (Opp.4, 13 and 50); one can download a reduction for clarinet and piano (1895) of his 3rd concerto from IMSLP here (http://imslp.org/wiki/Clarinet_Concerto_No.3,_Op.50_(Stark,_Robert)).
'Stark' in German means 'strong'. You have to be strong to box. ;)
This disc seems to have been crowd-funded and has a Facebook page devoted to the project. The works recorded include the concertos 2 & 3, the Waltzer-Capriccio and Romance. I know nothing about the composer, but he wrote a number of clarinet etudes and there's a Serenade for 2 clarinets, basset-horn and bass clarinet, Op.55 on Youtube. There's also a sonata for 2 clarinets and basset-horn in g minor and endless arrangements, and Heaven-knows what else...
Does anyone have biographical info?
David
2 links from the IMSLP composer category (http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Stark,_Robert):
Baker/Remy (1919) (https://books.google.com/books?id=IwcQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA903) (contains biographies of Ludwig Stark (1831-84) and Robert Stark (1847-1922); a lot of those arrangements you mention may be by "L. Stark", Ludwig, not Robert, unless I'm mistaken? But not all.)
and
Biography in German (http://frankenland.franconica.uni-wuerzburg.de/login/data/2002_109.pdf) (PDF from a server hosted at University of Würzburg.)
Try also those by Ernesto Cavallini (1807-74) on CPO 777 948-2 (2015 release) nicknamed the "Paganini of the clarinet (no less !!)
That one is on my wishlist.
Cavallini was a fantastic clarinet writer, and while I dunno about his concerti, his accompaniments for his Eb clarinet pieces are really pretty bad. Still the samples for the concerto disc sound nice.
Now back to Stark, please. He's much later than Cavallini.
Well, one can't say much about the orchestration from it but the clarinet/piano reduction of Stark no.3 is, again, @ IMSLP...