Rondo in A major

At a glance

• What it isthe third and last movement of the Clarinet Concerto in A major, a Rondo: Allegro, in which the theme returns several times.
• Who, when, whywritten in Vienna in the autumn of 1791 for a special clarinet Stadler played, which could reach lower notes.
• What to listen forthe passages where the clarinet leaps across from the high register to the low.

Listen for

• The themethe clarinet brings out a bouncing theme and the orchestra takes it up.
• Wide rangethe clarinet leaps down from high notes to deep low ones. It sounds like two people talking within one instrument.
• Shadoweven in this bright piece there are moments when the minor casts a brief shadow. Then the theme returns and it ends brightly.

When it was written

Stadler played a special instrument whose low range went further down than an ordinary clarinet, today called the basset clarinet. Mozart wrote this concerto to make full use of its deep low notes.

But Mozart's autograph has disappeared, and the edition published in 1801 had altered the low notes so the piece could be played on an ordinary clarinet. In the twentieth century, players began reviving the original instrument to perform it in the sound Mozart first imagined.