Picture: Johan Gustaf Sandberg - Midsommardans på Säfstaholm 1825 Bernhard Henrik Crusell (15 October 1775 – 28 July 1838) was a Swedish-Finnish clarinetist, composer and translator, "the most significant and internationally best-known Finnish-born classical composer and indeed, — the outstanding Finnish composer before Sibelius". Work: Clarinet Concerto No.1 in E flat-major, Op.1 (c. 1811) Mov.I: Allegro 00:00 Mov.II: Adagio 10:42 Mov.III: Rondo: Allegretto 14:40 Clarinet: Per Billman Orchestra: Uppsala Kammarorkester Conductor: Gérard Korsten The first of Crusell's three clarinet concertos, the Concerto in E flat major, Opus 1, dedicated to Count Gustav Trolle-Bonde, is thought to have been written at some time between 1803 and 1805 and was published in Leipzig in 1811. The work opens with the expected orchestral exposition, after which the soloist enters with a characteristically embellished version of the first subject, leading, in writing that displays the range and possibilities of the clarinet, to the second subject, now in the expected key of B flat major. The material is developed and returns in recapitulation. The A flat major slow movement allows the clarinet a brief aria, to be followed by the lively final Rondo, which again finds room for virtuoso display in scales, arpeggios and figuration that exploits the contrasted registers of the solo instrument.