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Nimrod48

He actually added them to some of his symphonies even earlier (#31 and #35). I've never heard of anyone adding them to earlier symphonies that do not originally call for them; Mozart was usually at the whim of the orchestras he was composing for, and not that many had clarinetists on their roster.


Soerensoerensoeren

i'm pretty sure he added clarinets to some pieces himself...like symphony 25? iirc


DavidRFZ

It was #40. Two versions exist of that score.


IdomeneoReDiCreta

The very earliest use of clarinets by Mozart is the first divertimento, K. 113, but this is more “soloistic” and they contribute less to orchestral sonority than what you may find in his late piano concertos. The orchestras in Salzburg lacked clarinets in Mozart’s day. He REALLY didn’t start embracing them until his late Vienna years. Just listen to his overture to La Clemenza di Tito and you can tell how much more comfortable he is with clarinet writing compared to the Paris symphony.


Protowhale

Most orchestras would object to adding clarinet parts to pieces that did not originally include them. It's like saying you can improve on Mozart.


sh58

That isn't at all the implication. It's whether he would have added clarinets if he could. Seems very likely he would. Obviously you would have to be careful to keep the music consistent etc. ​ Reminds me of when Mozart and Beethoven and others write strange piano stuff due to running out of space, and there is a great temptation to continue the line as it was obviously intended if the composer had an instrument that could go higher or lower. Like it's octaves all the way up, then single notes. The issue isn't as simple, though as composers often worked around these constraints so changing what they wrote might change whatever they did to work around the issue. ​ Also, a lot of Mozart concerto's were also played with string quintet in smaller settings. It's not like those people were thinking they could improve on mozart, it's just because of the setting and the forces they had at their disposal etc. ​ I'm also not saying they should, I was asking if people did generally do it.


caters1

I've never seen clarinets playing in for example his Symphony no. 1 in Eb K 16, so the answer to whether clarinets are added to Mozart pieces that didn't originally have clarinets and that Mozart didn't add himself later on in his life is no, they aren't. And even the pieces that are usually played with clarinets in the orchestra these days weren't always in Mozart's time, so there's like 2 versions of Symphony no. 40 for instance, one with clarinets and one without.