Stanford: Three Intermezzi, op. 13 for clarinet and piano

Code: JP2125
ISMN: 979-0-3019-0295-0

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) was born in Dublin, the son of a distinguished lawyer. Stanford received a general undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge. His musical training followed in Germany including composition studies with Carl Reinecke in Leipzig and then with Friedrich Kiel in Berlin. In 1882, aged 29, he was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition for the rest of his life. From 1887 he was also Professor of Music at Cambridge. Among his students were young composers, whose fame went on to surpass his own, including Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Arthur Bliss, Samuel Coleridge-Tayor, Eugene Goosens, and several others.

Three Intermezzi for clarinet and piano, Op. 13, was written towards the end of 1879 and first performed at a Cambridge University Musical Society concert in February 1880 by Stanford with clarinetist Francis Galpin, at that time a student at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. Galpin (1858-1945) later became well-known as a scholar and collector of old musical instruments, after whom the Galpin Society is named.

The three movements are not virtuosic but do have some technical problems as well as stylistic issues that may be a challenge. The total duration is approximately 8.5 minutes.