Clarinet players from Stadler to Fröst
There are and were a lot of excellent and popular clarinet players and ensembles, and it is not simple to give you a list of the "best known" or "the best". You find a list of the ones that I found were/are important in their time.
Quite often the clarinet players influenced composers directly - this wasn't always just a professional relationship only, but often a friendship. It helped both: The musician needed new and popular pieces to play, and the composer benefited from finding out what a player could do with the instrument. Most composers then and today play the piano and maybe one other instrument, the more they know about the characteristics of the instruments, the better they can set music for them. You find a lot of such relationships between composer and player: Stamitz and Joseph Beer, Mozart and Stadler, Spohr and Hermstedt, Weber and Baermann, Brahms and Mühlfeld, as well as Benny Goodman who worked together with modern composers a lot.
So which players should be on the list? This is especially difficult to answer for an international web page, because the question whether a player is well known depends, too, very much on the country you live in. This page developed from an original German page, so there still are lots of Germans here, but please: If you think a certain player should be added, do send me a mail with a short description in the style below and I will add that person.
Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler (1753 - 1812) is off course so well known, because his playing inspired Wolgang Amadeus Mozart to write his popular compositions. Without an extremely capable clarinet player one can hardly imagine the love of a composer like Mozart for the clarinet: At that time it was a crude, very imperfect instrument (and at the same time the string section played on Stradivaris - even today there is nothing better!). On the other hand the man Stadler was an infamous gambler and drinker, he fell nothing short to Mozart in spending money he didn't have: When Mozart died as poor man, Stadler still owed him money.
Johann Simon Hermstedt
Johann Simon Hermstedt (1778-1846) was the virtuoso with a technical talent. His tone was not as beautiful as Heinrich Baermann's (that is why Weber preferred Baermann and wrote for him), but Hermstedt was not only a player who could play nearly everything, but a giftid kraftsman as well. The composer who wrote for him was Spohr. Spohr did not care for any problems the player might have with a piece which in return resulted in Hermstedt improving the mechanic of his instrument. This pushed forward the technical improvemenue of the clarinet a lot. Still today the four concertos for Hermstedt are full of difficult problems even for the most experienced players.
Heinrich Baermann
Heinrich Baermann (1784 - 1847) started his musical career as oboe player in Potsdam. Then he learned to play the clarinet and went to Munich to King Ludwig's court, later to Vienna and London. He traveled all over Europe on concert tours. In Munich he met Carl Maria von Weber and like Mozart wrote concertos for Stadler, Weber wrote for Baermann. The success was overwhelming. Weber wrote to a friend: "The whole orchestra went crazy and demands concertos from me. The are writing to the King and the musical board...".
Carl Baermann
Heinrich Bearmann's son (1811 - 1885) Carl was a famous player, too, but today he may be even better known as professor for music and author of a clarinet book, that most of the German students still use today. He, too, has helped to improve the mechanics of the instrument.
Richard Mühlfeld
Richard Mühlfeld (1856 - 1907) started as violinist in the court orchestra in Meiningen, and taught himself to play the clarinet. His importance lies in his friendship with Johannes Brahms, who called him - due to his sweet tone - "miss clarinet". Brahms had already stopped composing, but Mühlfelds playing made him write his last works for Mühlfeld's clarinet.
Jack Brymer
Jack Brymer is an English clarinet player, who has recorded a lot of important pieces together with great
orchestras. He is maybe even better known to the musical world because he has written an excellent
Book about the clarinet that was translated in many languages (if there is one book
you should read as clarinet player, this is the one). He has intensively thought about many aspects of the
instrument, the sound of the clarinet and different ideas about it in the world and he is a well known
clarinet teacher.
Karl Leister
Karl Leister is the German clarinet player that you will find the most German recordings of. He played with Karajan more than thirty years. His recordings are allways perfect and adapted to the musical style required.
Dieter Klöcker
Dieter Klöcker is a German clarinet player with a lot of recordings. Especially if you are looking for pieces that are not top sellers, you may find recordings with him. Besides his playing career he is a Professor in Freiburg with a focus on jewish music, many pubications.
Jost Michaels
Jost Michaels was an excellent player, but was even better known as Professor in Detmold, where he focussed on playing technique. On this subject he has published a (German) book Spieltechnik.
Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer (www.sabine-meyer.com) is a popular German solo clarinet player and frequently tours with excellent ensembles. She has recorded a large number of CDs. She also is a Professor for clarinet in Lübeck. She became known to the public when Karajan called her to the Berlin Philharmonics to be the first woman in the Orchestra which led to some irritations. Today she probably is Germany's most popular clarinet player.
Sharon Kam
Sharon Kam (www.sharonkam.de) was born in Israel and won a stipendiate of the Jewish-American Cultural Society at the age of 12. Since then she gives concerts with famous orchestras and collects media prizes. Today she is living in Germany. She is a good example for the modern, flexible clarinet player who can adapt to the style required rather than playing all types of music in exactly the same manner.
Martin Fröst
Today the swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst (www.martinfrost.se) is definitely the most unconventional international wind players. On the one hand he is a gifted solo clarinet player, who frequently tours with excellent orchestras like the German Chamber Philharmony Bremen, the Camerata Salzburg or the Hamburg Symphonics. But since there is a number of brilliant soloist out there, this would not be sufficient to establish yourself in this time. Fröst has therefore invested the price money he won in a competition into an unusual composition that combines modern music with dance and acting elements (you find the video at his home page). This makes performances by Fröst interesting for a wide audience, and that again translates into sold tickets which is an important factor for every orchestra that may engage him as a solo clarinetist.
Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman is a Jewish-American clarinet player who started as jazz musician (mainly swing area - he still is called "The King Of Swing"), who managed to establish this music in a serious environment (the famous concert in Carnegie Hall), and who toured with classical and even modern pieces as soloist, too. He made some recordings of classical works in Goodman style, that is, Mozart with a vibrato - real traditionalists don't like it... But then there is no doubt that Goodman has pushed foreward modern clarinet music by ordering works from many modern composers.
Giora Feidman
Giora Feidman has his roots in the jewish Klezmer tradition. He plays an important part in the renaissance of that style, especially when he appeared in some movies as jewish klezmer clarinet player.
Other well known clarinet players (Links)
- Allen, Woody - more a movie director and actor, plays as amateur in New Orleans style
- Bilk, Acker - British Jazzer, mainly one hit (Stranger on the Shore)
- Fazola, Irving - well known jazzer from New Orleans
- Fountain, Pete - well known jazzer from New Orleans
- Helliwell, John - British musician, sometimes uses a clarinet in the Band Supertramp
- Herman, Woody - swing musician
- Shaw, Artie - white Big Band innovator
German Version