null Skip to main content
Page background

Krommer

Franz Krommer (1759–1831) was a Czech composer who built his career largely in Vienna, becoming in 1818 the last official court composer and director of chamber music to the Habsburg emperors. Trained on violin and organ by his uncle, he worked as Kapellmeister across Hungary before settling in Vienna, where his output of over 300 works earned him honorary membership of the Paris, Milan, and Vienna conservatoires. Alongside Haydn, he was the era's leading composer of string quartets, but it's his wind concertos that modern audiences rate as his most individual achievement, and clarinettists in particular have never let him go: his concertos for one and two clarinets sit alongside Mozart's and Weber's as core Classical repertoire for the instrument, admired for writing that is idiomatic, brilliant, and genuinely difficult to fault. His Concerto No.1 for Two Clarinets, Op.35 remains a favourite for exactly this reason, and works well arranged for string orchestra as a substitute for the missing Classical-era orchestra.

Frequently Asked Questions