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, Wolfgang her brother and clarinet player 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 USA, 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.
SEASON 2009/10
WE UPDATE OUR BIOGRAPHIES REGULARLY. PLEASE DO NOT USE PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIAL.