Sabine Meyer was fantastic, quite the most articulate and adroit clarinetist I've ever heard.

—San Francisco Classical Voice

Program

MOZART: Three Arias from The Marriage of Figaro; Divertimento No. 1; Four Arias from Cosi fan Tutte
POULENC: Sonata for 2 Clarinets
STRAVINSKY: Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo
J.S. BACH: French Suite No. 5
C.P.E. BACH: Duet in C Major

Encore:
Don Giovanni: Riposate, vezzose ragazze

About This Performance

With highly original programs and a star instrumentalist like Sabine Meyer, Trio di Clarone is one of the most unusual and popular chamber music ensembles to emerge in decades. This clarinet trio has delighted period instrument buffs, early music aficionados and just plain lovers of great chamber music by focusing on historic works for basset horn and clarinet, paired with modern and contemporary music.

Artist Biography

Trio di Clarone
The enthusiastic music lover may certainly know the bassett horn, a rare instrument in the clarinet family. It was used in Mozart’s Requiem KV626, which owes its melancholy sound to this dark-toned instrument.

The clarinet player, however, also knows this instrument as a rather difficult one: it is often challenging to master both technically and in terms of intonation. A trio of bassett horns would probably have been unthinkable had it not been for Mozart and his five Divertimenti written for just this instrumentation.

Mozart seemed to have had a particular infinity for the bassett horn during his final years. Some even believe that the bassett horn was his favourite instrument. Although many of his compositions with bassett horn have fallen into near oblivion today. The five above-mentioned divertimenti (KV 439 b) survived, but only as an arrangement for two clarinets and bassoon.

Sabine Meyer, her brother Wolfgang and Reiner Wehle formed the Trio di Clarone in 1983. Their interest in how the original divertimenti must have sounded played an important part. Obviously five divertimenti of Mozart could not form a complete concert program. Rather than including compositions of lesser quality by Mozart’s contemporaries, they decided to contrast Mozart’s ingenious works with important compositions of the present day.

This juxtaposition of Mozart and contemporary works soon became a success. Regular concert appearances in Germany and other European countries as well as numerous broadcast recordings and appearances on television have made Trio Di Clarone quickly popular. Tours brought them to the U.S., Africa, Japan and China.

In their effort to perform important but seldom heard original pieces, Trio Di Clarone occasionally collaborates with other musicians, thus being able to present a truly rare and interesting program such as performing a program with three singers and three clarinet players or works for three clarinets and piano. On the occasion of Trio Di Clarone’s tenth anniversary, they collaborated with well-known American jazz clarinetist Eddie Daniels in a cross-over program, which was released on CD as Blues for Sabine by EMI Classics.

In 2000 Trio di Clarone toured with German jazz clarinetist Michael Riessler with Bach 2000, also releaswed on CD by EMI Classics under the title Bach in 1 Hour. They have now performed their second program with Michael Riessler since 2003. The collaboration with French hurdy-gurdy player Pierre Charial, was called Paris Mécanique, which was also recorded. The most recent project is the recording of Invitacion al Danzon with Paquito D’Rivera released in the summer 2009.

Sabine Meyer is regarded as one of the most outstanding soloists of our time. It is thanks to her that the clarinet, previously underrated as a solo instrument, has reclaimed the concert stage.

Born in Crailsheim, Meyer studied in Stuttgart under Otto Hermann and in Hanover under Hans Deinzer. She began her career as a member of the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra. She subsequently played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as solo clarinettist, a position she left as she became increasingly in demand as a solo artist.

Since then, numerous concerts and radio and television appearances have taken her to the major musical centres of Europe, as well as to Brazil, Canada, Africa, Israel and Australia. She performs regularly in Japan and the U.S.

Meyer can already look back over an unparalleled career as a solo artist. Since her debut at the age of 16, she has enjoyed success with leading orchestras both at home and abroad. She has performed with more than 80 professional orchestras in Germany and her track record of international appearances is unique amongst wind soloists.

Orchestras with which she has performed include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. In addition, she performs regularly with the Radio Symphony Orchestras in Vienna, Basel, Warsaw, Prague, Turin, Budapest, Brussels and Copenhagen and with major orchestras in Spain, Italy, Holland, Japan and Switzerland.

Her repertoire as a soloist covers the pre-classical (Johann M. Molter, Johann Stamitz), the “standard repertoire” of the clarinet (Mozart, Weber, Nielsen, Hindemith) and the avant-garde. A number of composers, including Manfred Trojahn and Toshio Hosokawa, have dedicated new clarinet concertos to her. She has also rediscovered important and previously forgotten compositions for the clarinet (Sandor Veress, Berthold Goldschmidt).

In addition to her work as a soloist, Meyer is a committed player of chamber music. Unlike many other stars of classical music, she finds great value in continued long-term collaboration with other musicians.

She has performed with many artists including Gidon Kremer, Tabea Zimmermann, Heinrich Schiff, Oleg Maisenbery, Lars Vogt, the Vienna String Sextet and the Hagen Quartet—with some of them for over twenty years. She has also formed close partnerships with the Cleveland Quartet, the Alban Berg Quartet and the Tokyo String Quartet (with an international tour in 2001/02). Sabine Meyer also dedicates a significant proportion of her artistic energies to her own two ensembles, the Trio Di Clarone and the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer. The extent of Sabine Meyer’s commitment to chamber music was the reason that Claudio Abbado has appointed her as solo clarinettist for the next few years with the new Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Sabine Meyer is also particularly interested in supporting the performance of contemporary music both at special festivals and in other settings. She included compositions by Isang Yun, Pierre Boulez, Edison Denissow and Karlheinz Stockhausen in her repertoire at the beginning of her career. It is Sabine Meyer’s intention that the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer and the Trio di Clarone will always include contemporary music in their performances and, to this end, she has commissioned and premiered numerous compositions, including works by Jean Francaix, Edison Denissow, Toshio Hosokawa, Nicolo Castiglioni and Aribert Reimann.

A highly regarded CD containing five pieces dedicated to the Bläserensemble won the Echo Prize for the chamber music recording of the year in 2001. Sabine Meyer is also committed to the avant-garde in her solo work and has premiered compositions by Harald Genzmer, Marc-André Dalbavie, Toshio Hosokawa and Manfred Trojahn.

The artist has enjoyed a close working relationship with EMI Classics since 1983. Her recorded works range from the pre-classical to the avant-garde and include all the major solo concertos and chamber music pieces written for the clarinet.

Many of these productions have received awards. Meyer has been awarded the prestigious Echo Prize on six occasions (more often than any other classical artist to date) by the Deutsche Phonoakademie, including four awards for the Instrumentalist Of The Year (in 1994 and 1996 for the outstanding recording of the clarinet concertos by Johann and Carl Stamitz; in 2000 for the new recording of the Mozart concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado, and in 2003 for a recording of virtuoso pieces by Weber and Mendelssohn).

Her Brahms Quintet with the Alban Berg Quartet and the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer, with modern pieces dedicated to the ensemble, was awarded Chamber Music Recording of the Year.

In addition to her work as a concert musician, Sabine Meyer has worked as a teacher for many years. She has held master classes in Germany, Italy, Austria, Japan, the U.S., Holland, England and Switzerland and was appointed a professor at the Lübeck Academy of Music in 1993. In contrast to the expectations of many music students attending the numerous master classes held these days, Sabine Meyer does not just aim to pass on tips and tricks of the trade, but sets great store by solid basic training.

Together with her husband Reiner Wehle, Meyer has developed a carefully planned, systematic training program that specifically addresses the issues of sound quality (embouchure, volume, tonal colours), which are often flagrantly neglected by many modern clarinettists. The aim of this program is to combine the rich, powerful sound quality of the German clarinet with the flexible tonality of the French Boehm System. The program places particular emphasis on the careful selection and handling of clarinet reeds.

With a combination of melody-based games and practice, Meyer places herself solidly in the tradition of the German clarinet school with its complex sound, rich in harmonics.

In addition to numerous musical awards, Meyer has also received the Niedersachsen Prize and is a member of the Hamburg Academy of Arts.

Meyer lives in the historic town of Lübeck with her husband Reiner Wehle—also a clarinet professor at the Lübeck Academy of Music—and their two children Simon and Alma. Her hobbies are cooking, reading and horse-riding. Other “members of the family” include Oskar the German shepherd cross, four horses (Meyer breeds horses) and several cats.

Reiner Wehle, born in 1954 in Kiel, Germany, studied the clarinet with Hans Deinzer in Hannover and Guy Deplus in Paris. In the course of his career, he has been awarded numerous international prizes, for example at competitions in Prague, Colmar, Martigny, Toulon and at the ARD Competition in Munich. In 1979 he was winner of the First Prize at the “Deutscher Musikwettbewerb” in Bonn.

Wehle has held engagements in various prestigious orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (with Sergio Celibidache) and the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra at Hannover. He is a member of the “Lucerne Festival Orchestra”, playing under the direction of Claudio Abbado.

As a soloist, he has performed with many orchestras in a host of different countries (e.g. the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Hannover, and the Tivoli Orchestra of Copenhagen, amongst others). He is an active chamber musician and has played worldwide with the Trio di Clarone, the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer, the Ensemble Kontraste and the Trio Integral.

Wehle has made several CD recordings on the EMI Classics, Thorofon, ambitus and Novalis labels. He has twice received the highly acclaimed "Echo Prize" for the CD of the year (1999 and 2000). Since 1992, he has held a professorship at the “Musikhochschule Lübeck” together with his wife, Sabine Meyer. As well as giving a large number of masterclasses in different countries (e.g. in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, China, Bulgaria and Israel), he has been a jury member at numerous highly-ranked music competitions.

Wolfgang Meyer, born in Crailsheim, Germany, studied with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hannover. Already in 1969 and again in 1971 and 1973, he received first prize at the national “Jugend musiziert” competition. In 1974 he was awarded the Kranichsteiner Music-Prize, in 1975 he was prizewinner, with the Syriny Quintet, at the International Music Competition of the ARD in Munich. This was followed by first prize at the Competition of the German Colleges of Music in 1976, and first prize at the 1977 German Music Competition in Bonn. Since 1989 Wolfgang Meyer has been Professor of Clarinet at the Karlsruhe College of Music, from 2001 to 2007 he was director of this College of Music (Musikhochschule).

As soloist, Meyer places special emphasis on performances of contemporary works, including the many double concertos for flute and clarinet by Tiberiu Olah, Jean Francaix, Hubert Stupper, Peter Eötvös, and Edison Denissov.

Since 1996 Meyer has performed regularly with the Concentus Musicus under the direction of Nicolaus Harnoncourt. He also recorded the Mozart clarinet concerto with them for Teldec.

In the area of chamber music, Meyer works by preference in Trio di Clarone with his sister Sabine, in a trio with Hariolf Schlichtig and Rudi Spring, as well as in the Zemlinsky Trio. Moreover, Meyer maintains intensive partnerships with the Carmina Quartet and the Quatour Mosaiques, with whom he made a recently released recording of Mozarts Clarinet Quintet and Kegelstatt Trio on historical instruments for Astrée. In addition, Wolfgang Meyer has issued records on EMI, for whom he recorded the two Brahms Sonatas with the orchestra, on Amati, Bayer Records, Dabringhaus and Grimm, and Harmonia mundi France.

Since 2004 he has played in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Claudio Abbado.

Links/Downloads

*To view the program notes, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader (available as a free download from Adobe).