Robert Stark: Clarinet Concertos

HAMBURG SYMPHONY ASHKENAZY, DIMITRI ASHKENAZY

Born in Germany, Robert Stark (1847–1922) is one of those composers history seems to have left by the wayside – this despite the fact that clarinetists, or at least the professionals among them, will tend to know his name because of his 1892 clarinet tutorial still consulted by clarinet teachers the world over, and countless students of the instrument must have used. The pieces on this recording, his Second and Third Clarinet Concertos interspersed with a brief Waltz-Capriccio and a Romance for Clarinet and Orchestra, are not only elegant, inventive and appealing, but honest music.

Price: $23.98