Ive been looking for some great clarinet concertos lately, pref hard ones. Could you guys help and give me some!
Thanks
Peace All
~*Hayley*~

Just concertos?

Concertos:

Copeland Concerto
Mozart Concerto
Weber Concerto No. I and II

non concertos:

Debussy Premier Rhapsody
Shumann Fantasy Pieces
Brahms Sonata in F minor No. I
Rossini Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra

Those are just some of my favorites.

Finzi concerto.
All four Spohr Concerti.

i never realized that there is that many songs just featuring clarinets
WOW

There are way more pieces than that.

Go to http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Composers/index.html

I know this is SOoOOo broad...but ive heard this great concertino by this crazy french composer with the last name of a g...heh-reply if you have more or if you share any of this. Thanks!!!

peace all
Hayley

MOZART CONCERTO: considered the cornerstone of all clarinet literature. Not too technically challenging, and easy to progress in the early stages, though this gives it the impresion that it gets harder the more often you practice it.

WEBER AND SPOHR CONCERTOS: pretty much the only significant romantic era concerti for clarinet; this was a time when composers felt winds weren`t capable of capturing the emotions needed as strings or pianos. these concerti are rather challening in terms of technicality

KROMMER CONCERTO: franz krommer`s best known work was his one and only clarinet concerto. comparatively simple and learnable to good intermediate students, but not of too much musical value

CARL STAMITZ CONCERTOS: his third clarinet concerto is considered the introductory concerto and is usualy the one most students learn first. decent work and pretty fun to play. probably a good idea to learn it if you haven`t done so already.

COPLAND CONCERTO: a 20th century jazz concerto commishioned for benny goodman, though the collaboration b/t copland and bg didn`t work out as well as you might have guessed. the concerto is in 3 parts; a slow and expressive opening, a long glorious cadenza, and a jazzy finale. rather tough to play, though accessible to a good, ambitious, serious student

NIELSON CONCERTO: carl nielson`s crazy, tough work. a challenge for even graduate school students working on their masters. i would stay away from it right now.

CORIGLIANO CONCERTO: most would agree this is the toughest in the repertoire. written by the great american composer for mehta`s nypo with stanley drucker, perhaps 5 people in this whole world can play it with proficency?

Other notable concerti:
Shaw, Pleyel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Kozulech, Yost, Johann Stamitz, Hartke (printed score probably not yet available)

Notable Non-Concerto Pieces for Clarinet With Orchestra:
Weber Concertino, Debussy Premiere Rhapsody, Danzi Sinfonie Concertante (with flute),

For standard and the most well known concerti, I would go with the Mozart or Weber (2nd concerto I find more challenging than the first) but for something different, I would suggest Finzi, Copland or Nielsen Concertos (depends on what your definition of hard is)