Mozart's Clarinet Quintet

Good things come in small packages. Five players from Sinfonia Viva pair British classics with the timeless beauty of Mozart’s magical Clarinet Quintet.

Chamber music has been called “the music of friends”, and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet is exactly that. Critics said that Mozart’s friend, the clarinettist Anton Stadler, made a sound “so sweet and lovely that no-one with a heart could resist it”. Mozart, on the other hand, never stood on ceremony; his nickname for Stadler was “redcurrant-face”. Still, genius will out, and when he wrote this glorious Quintet for Stadler and a quartet of string playing friends, he poured out both heart and soul. The result is little short of magical, as the rich, dark-chocolate voice of the clarinet joins silver-toned strings to conjure some of the loveliest sounds that even Mozart ever imagined.

And that’s saying something. The musicians of Sinfonia Viva never need any excuse to share music as wonderful as this; the only question is what to play with it. This morning, in the beautiful surroundings of Derby Cathedral, we’re going British, and no composer evokes the tranquillity of the English countryside more perfectly than Gerald Finzi. Rebecca Clarke was a very different sort of British visionary, and her stunning Poem for strings distils an intensely personal poetry and passion into just nine minutes of music. A wonderful showcase for a composer who is only now starting to receive her due.