Uhl, Alfred

Alfred Uhl – Concertante Symphony for Clarinet and Orchestra

(b. Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria], 5 June 1909 – d. Vienna, Austria, 8 June 1992)

Konzertante Symphonie für Klarinette und Orchester

(1943)

Allegro giocoso p.1
Molto tranquillo p. 50
Presto. p. 64

Dedication: Leopold Wlach (1902-1956), Uhl’s longtime Viennese colleague, who was first-chair clarinet for the Vienna State Opera & Vienna Philharmonic from 1924-1954

Orchestration: solo B-flat clarinet, 2 flutes (both doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling on English horn), 2 B-flat clarinets (1st doubling on B-flat bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings

Composer
Alfred Uhl was anViennese music teacher and conductor who began composing at a young age and played cello in his family string quartet. He was a composition student of Max Kuhn (privately, 1924-1927) and Franz Schmidt (1927-1932, at the Vienna Music Academy), then moved to Zürich to earn money as a piano bar performer, Kapellmeister of the Festspielmusik, and documentary film composer for the Swiss government. His score for Symphonie des Wassers (a textless film) won a gold medal at the 1936 Venice Biennial, but the Praesens-Filmgesellschaft company grew uncomfortable “employing a German.” He returned to Vienna in 1938 and was drafted into the Austrian army in 1940. He was posted to the French prison camp in Neumarkt, suffered a partial foot amputation after stepping on a mine on the Eastern Front in 1942, and was discharged from the army.

From 1943-1980, Uhl taught theory and orchestration at the Vienna Music Academy, served as President of the Österreichischen Gesellschaft für zeitgenössische Musik, and was called “the Austrian minstrel of the twentieth century” by Erik Werba in Die Welt. He composed music for 60 cinematic ads, 24 documentaries, and notable feature films of the 1950s such as Frühlingsstimmen (1952) and Der Verschwender (1953). Uhl was a respected member of the Viennese musical community, composing music that was influenced by the Austrian countryside and permeated with functional tonality, dance rhythms, and colorful orchestration. His colleagues considered him to be sincere, humane, and tolerant, often quoting his personal philosophy: “The creation of art is nothing other than to go along old paths again with new spirit. Therefore, in music… what is ‘new’ is the human and what he has to say.” This echoes the view promoted by Russian literary formalist Victor Shklovsky (“Any kind of art is created parallel to and opposed to some kind of form,” 1926). …

Read full English preface / Das deutsche Vorwort komplett lesen > HERE