Yost - Concerto in Bb for clarinet and piano by Michel Yost B-Flat Clarinet - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.581564

Michel Yost was a Swiss-born clarinetist who spent his playing life in Paris. He was known as having a nimble and gentle tone and was a popular performer at the Concert Spirituel, one of the first public concert series. The actual composition of the 14 known concertos is an interesting question. Michel and his concertos became so popular in Europe that his first name became something of a trademark. However, there is evidence that Johann Christoph Vogel (1756 – 1788) wrote most of the music. Only in later publications was the dual nature of the composition of the music correctly credited to the Yost – Vogel team. It is likely that Yost related his musical ideas and his virtuoso abilities to Vogel, who put it all into good form and craftsmanship. In making this edition for clarinet and piano from the original manuscript copy, I strove to use articulations which are consistent with practices of the time. In accordance with the practices of the day, the markings are sparse and only give clues to how it was actually played. I encourage players to make their own decisions about these matters. For the piano reduction my goal was to make the piano part more like an early classical keyboard sonata than a mere emulation of a full orchestra. I believe this makes the music more playable and in keeping with the musical tone of the period. An interesting feature of the manuscript are the cadenzas which were written in the margins in a different hand than the rest of the manuscript. Was this the writing of Yost, or some other performer of the time? There is some scholarly speculation that they were written by Anton Stadler, for whom Mozart wrote his clarinet works. Also, the cadenza as written goes down to a low C, a major third lower than the standard clarinet of today. Stadler was known to have played a clarinet with that range. You may watch videos of my performance at http://youtu.be/cGoh0-zit0M (1st movement) http://youtu.be/abQdKbrjuUI (2nd movement) and http://youtu.be/im-k_YH7FpA (3rd movement).