Clarinet Quintet Op.53 (parts)

First performance on 20th November 2007 at St George’s Hall Liverpool by Nicholas Cox (Clarinet) and the Chilingirian Quartet as part of the Rodewald Concert Series.

Score and Parts-Wallingford Riegger (1885-1961) was an American cellist and composer who is noted as being one of the principle proponents of Serialism and the twelve-tone technique in America. His Concerto (Op. 53) was commissioned in 1953 by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and first performed at the Library of Congress. It is scored for Piano and Wind Quintet - Flute Oboe Clarinet Horn and Bassoon - and is comprised of three movements: Allegro - Andante - Allegro Molto.Receiving critical acclaim as soon as it was released the Concerto cleverly blends atonal and diatonic elements creating an animated condensed modern work thathas unfairly fallen out of the repertoire.

This edition of Onslow's fifteenth String Quintet has the advantage of being either a two Viola or a two Cello quintet as it is published with parts for two cellists or two violists. It is a major work with good parts for all players with the 1st Violin part having a particularly large numbers of fast semi quavers (sixteenths) in the outer movements.It is known as 'The Bullet' due to the circumstances of its composition: Onslow was boar hunting in the Auvergne when a theme occurred to him. He dismounted and sat on a nearby fallen tree trunk and wrote it down. A boar then burst from the bushes and his companions fired missing the boar and hitting Onslow.The quintet was completed on his recovery and graphically illustrates his sufferings. George Onslow an Anglo-French composer was born in Clermont-Ferrand in July 1784 and died there in October 1853.