Camille Saint-Saëns wrote this sonata at the end of a very long career. It was originally meant to be part of a collection of six sonatas for various wind instruments. Unfortunately the composer died before achieving his project and only completed three sonatas out of six: one for oboe and piano, one for bassoon and piano, and finally this very beautiful sonata for clarinet and piano dedicated to Auguste Périer, a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire.
The orchestration here was carried out in 2014 under the suggestion of French clarinetist Michel Lethiec, who gave its first performance in Washington on October 12th 2014 with the National Gallery of Art Orchestra conducted by Philippe Entremont.
Faithful to the original score (the solo clarinet part remains unchanged), this version tries to amplify and enhance the phrasing and the general articulation of the music, thanks to the infinite possibilities of textures given by a string ensemble.
Franck Villard
(translation Philippe Do)
Nomenclature
clarinette et orchestre à cordes
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