Franz Anton Dimler: Three Clarinet Concertos

Anton Dimler’s Colorful Clarinet Concertos

The famous court orchestra of Prince Elector Carl Theodor of the Palatinate was distinguished by the fact that its musicians were not only certified virtuosos on their instruments but also good composers. Some of these most highly capable musicians basked in the limelight of the international music world, while others stayed in the background without this meaning that they were less-talented musicians. One of them was the horn player and later double bassist Anton Dimler, a member of the Mannheim Court Orchestra who today is known as a composer only to a few specialists even though his works exhibit great quality. This is also true of his clarinet concertos, three of which have been recorded for the first time on the present release. The focus in them is always on the highly virtuosic solo parts, while the orchestral accompaniment exercises a subordinate function. The soloist has the opportunity to display his brilliance with passagework, arpeggios, and shifts of register and makes all the colors of the clarinet shine over its whole tonal gamut.