Weber, Concerto No. 1 (Second Movement)

Hi everyone! Heather here.

We're back with some more of Weber's First Concerto, this time the second movement. Download the PDF above for the two excerpts I'm going to be looking at (because this movement is quite short this is almost the whole thing so if you work on these two for the next two weeks you'll be well on your way!)

First Excerpt: Opening of the Movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSOZDEKIJu0&list=RDgSOZDEKIJu0&start_radio=1

• I'm sharing a recording by Kevin Spagnolo - a clarinetist I didn't know about until a year ago when one of my undergraduate level students told me she was a big fan of his. As a side note, I don't really understand how he can get such a terrific sound when he plays with the bell raised so much of the time (and often seems to be playing out of the side of his mouth), but he sounds fantastic here.
• Weber combines a lot of articulations with slurs in this movement, and this is a really tricky thing to pull off: we want everything to be as legato as possible while still having the impression of articulated notes. I aim to think less about 'tonguing' and more about very gently flicking the reed with my tongue. This is true for the second F in bar 2, the D at the end of bar 3, and the descending triplets from the high E towards the end.
• The A to A leap in the fourth bar is worth preparing for - I really use that accented Bb to help make sure that I'm fully supporting (I can feel my abdominal muscles lightly engaging when I do this). But the stronger that Bb is, the easier the leap will be, we want that high A to sound like it's just floating
• Same again on the last line when we do the chromatic descent from F# to F to E and then the octave happens again - a nice full crescendo will help you there. (Keep in mind that this is meant to be played with an orchestra behind you, so a reasonably full sound even when marked piano is good!)
• With the turn that happens on the second line on the D, I would say delay it as long as you can, like you're almost tossing it away (but with great support :D)

Second Excerpt: Sixteenths at the End

https://youtu.be/03KGSxHhmq4?si=xSQK2qkdmXYEglR6&t=627

• If noting else, here we have a fantastic little technical exercise for you - arpeggios with different articulation patterns, nothing can be better for your technical playing. But it's also beautiful and dramatic.
• The tempo increases here, it's marked poco più animato - so I would aim for quarter note = 68 here (compared to the opening which I might play as slow as 44!). 
• A nice forte dynamic is going to be your friend, especially at the base of all of these upward arpeggios. For those first two, I would imagine a little decrescendo on the last beat (as it descends again).
• In fact, every time you have an accent, you can emphasise this a little bit in time as well as dynamic. It's not rubato as such, we want to keep moving, but holding for just a fraction of a second longer before speeding up again could be a very nice effect. That said, make sure you've practiced this with your metronome to get the technique under your fingers first!