Alea Publishing is pleased to release Weber's bassoon concerto, expertly transcribed and arranged for bass clarinet and piano by Kathryn Vedder. Clarinetists are already familiar with the works of C.M. von Weber. His Concertino and two concertos are staples of the clarinetist's repertoire. Those three works were written in 1811 for Heinrich Baermann, clarinetist of the Munich orchestra. Less known to clarinetists is Weber's bassoon concerto written in the same year for the bassoonist Georg Friedrich Brandt, a well-known soloist who joined the Munich orchestra in 1806. Much like the clarinet concertos, the bassoon concerto is full of rich melodies and virtuosic passages. The three-movement work is filled with the drama of Weber's German romantic opera style. In this edition, the solo bass clarinet line has been transposed to sound in the original key, the new key signatures are very idiomatic for the bass clarinet. Using the extension keys all notes remain in their original octave but alternative notes have been provided for the traditional bass clarinet range.
