Mozart's Clarinet: Nicola Boud, Simon Cobcroft and Erin Helyard

Vienna, 1785. Johann Friedrich Schink is blown away by a new work featuring the clarinet and basset horn. 'Oh, what a glorious effect it made – glorious and great, excellent and sublime!' he writes of Mozart’s Serenade 'Gran Partita’.

Eighteenth-century Vienna was alive with musical inventions. The clarinet, basset horn, and fortepiano were expanding the possibilities for composers like Mozart and the young Ludwig van Beethoven.

Performers and early music scholars Nicola Boud, Simon Cobcroft, and Erin Helyard bring their infectious enthusiasm for 18th-century innovation to the much-loved chamber music of these trailblazing composers.

Travel back to the future with three dynamic artists to works including Mozart’s ‘Kegelstatt’ Trio and Beethoven’s ‘Gassenhauer’ Trio as if for the first time.

‘Erin Helyard shapes the music like you’re watching and hearing it being created fresh on the spot for the first time.’ Daily Review

‘Nicola Boud is one of the most sought after historical clarinet players of her generation.’ Royal Conservatoire, The Hague

‘…[the] cello lines at the hands of Simon Cobcroft sung beautifully.’ Sydney Arts Guide

• Program

  Beethoven

  Sonata for Fortepiano and Basset Horn, Op. 17 (arr. Friedlowsky)

  Beethoven

  12 Variations on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ from The Magic Flute

  Mozart

  Trio in E-flat major, K. 498 ‘Kegelstatt’

  Beethoven

  Aria con Variazioni from Three Duos, WoO 27

  Mozart

  Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545

  Beethoven

  Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11 ‘Gassenhauer’

• Artists

  Nicola Boud

  Historical clarinets

  Simon Cobcroft

  Cello

  Erin Helyard

  Fortepiano