Stamitz, Carl (1745-1801)

The present work, designated No.5 in Michael Jacob's catalogue of the concertos in his study Die Klarinettenkonzerte von Carl Stamitz (Wiesbaden, Breitkopf und Härtel, 1991), was probably composed in Paris in the mid- to late-1770s although it was not published until 1786 when it appeared as the last in a group of six clarinet concertos by Stamitz issued by Sieber. The title page of the Sieber editions reads: CONCERTOS / a Clarinette Principalle / Deux Violons Alto et Basse / Hautbois et Cors adlibitum [sic] / Composees / par / C Stamitz ... This edition is based on a copy of the Sieber print preserved in the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris, under the shelfmark K.1798. The Paris print omits the wind parts which have been supplied in this edition from a contemporary MS copy of the work in the ?sterreichische Nationalbibliothek (S.m.5866). The wind parts and the solo part of the Viennese MS are in the same hand as S.m.5865, a copy of Concerto No.7 in B (AE210). The large number of variant articulations in the solo part provide further evidence that the copyist was probably a clarinettist and also point to the MS being copied from a source other than the Sieber print. In the absence of both the autograph score and an authentic set of parts, this edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in two extant sources. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardized throughout and, where missing, markings have been reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets where appropriate. Like most eighteenth century sources, the MS is inconsistent at times in its notation of appoggiature ; these too have been standardized to minimize confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets. Allan Badley