Louis Spohr’s First Clarinet Concerto was written in winter 1808/09, at a time when the clarinet had just established itself as an orchestral and solo instrument. The concertos of Spohr and Weber which we know today and which date from these “pioneer days” around 1810 are due to the in-depth collaboration between composer and performer. Spohr wrote his technically very demanding clarinet concertos for the virtuoso Johann Simon Hermstedt. After the first successful performances, the composer decided to simplify the solo part for the printed edition.

The “Breitkopf Urtext” edition is based on the autograph of the score and the first printing of the parts, which frequently differ from it. In the solo part, we have kept the easier variants along with the original version.