What is striking about Harald Genzmer's composition for the clarinet family is the degree of "clarinetistic" proficiency with which they are written, betraying the composer's particular fondness for the instrument. In addition to the composition and musicology, Genzmer did, of course, study clarinet with Professor Alfred Richter.

During his long and prolific life, Genzmer wrote an unusually large number of works for the clarinet.* The editor of the present Harald Genzmer edition therefore needed no special powers of persuasion when she requested a piece for solo bass clarinet in October 1984. The composer immediately agreed and within two weeks the four-movement sonata was complete. Such rapidity of execution was entirely typical of Genzmer when a commission really excited him.

The original version of the work, published here for the first time, is based on the manuscript dated by Genzmer 29 October 1984. He changed just three bars, happily taking up suggestion of the commissioner of the piece to set certain passages in the middle rather than the upper register. As a result, the following passages were transposed down an octave: first movement: bas 32 (first, third and fourth sextuplets), bar 33 (first and second sextuplets); fourth movement: bar 27 (second to eight and tenth semiquavers). The composer also incorporated virtually all of these changes into the revised version of 1986.

The original version of the sonata received its first performance in Vienna on 7 May 1985. This was followed by its German premiere in Munich in the presence of the composer on 18 November 1985. Since then the work has been performed in concert by the editor on numerous occasion and has developed into a classic of the solo literature for bass clarinet, above all in the guise of the first version. The earlier version comes across in places as better balanced and more "logical" than the later version, a number of bars and passages of which contains somehow unwieldy leaps, giving the piece a less well-rounded aspect. Thanks to the work's extremely idiomatic (that is to say clarinet-oriented) style of composition, it has become a favourite of musicians and audience alike, in keeping Genzmer's credo:

"Music needs to be vital, artful and comprehensible.
May it win over the performer by being practicable and the listener by being intelligible."

Renate Rusche-Staudinger
(Translation: Richard George Elliot)

*See catalogue of works: Harald Genzmer, Werkverzeichnis, ed. Marcus Faul, Mainz 2011 (present sonata: GeWV 202, p 341 f.).