Philharmonia Chamber Players: Spotlight on the Clarinet

The spotlight is on the Philharmonia’s Joint Principal Clarinet Mark van de Wiel in this free early-evening concert.

Two lifelong relationships gave rise to the music in this evening’s programme. Ruth Gipps, dedicated her Rhapsody to clarinettist Robert Baker, her future husband. She wrote it while both she and Baker were still students at the Royal College of Music. The influence of her composition tutor Ralph Vaughan Williams can be heard in some of its pastoral melodies, but her own creativity and ‘rich, warm-hearted idiom’ (Gramophone) shine through.

Weber’s Clarinet Quintet arose from his longstanding friendship with virtuoso clarinettist Heinrich Baermann. In his concerto-like quintet, he shows off different facets of the soloist’s skill, from technical challenges like rapid chromatic runs spanning almost three octaves, to the clarinet’s expressive, singing tone.

This performance celebrates another set of relationships too – that of clarinettist Mark van de Wiel with his Philharmonia colleagues, and with the listeners who’ve been enjoying his peerless playing since he joined the orchestra 25 years ago.