The selections on this disc are representative of a small, largely forgotten repertoire of solo and chamber pieces dating from the second half of the nineteenth century until the 1930s by composers such as York Bowen, Saint-Saens and August Klughardt. The majority of the pieces on this disc, performed by Stefano Cardo, Thomas Aber and others with the Liliencron Quartet der Stuttgarter Philharmoniker have not previously been recorded.

From its earliest days as a usable musical instrument the richly majestic tone of the bass clarinet has placed it in a category apart from other, perhaps more familiar, instruments. Its sonorous voice issued a summons to a sphere, whether celestial or infernal, beyond everyday existence. The bass clarinet began its orchestral career providing a particular dramatic effect in Parisian grand opera during the 1830s and since then has had consistent employment as a harbinger of supernatural, otherworldly mystery and as a portent of both death and the heavens beyond.

Gradually during the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth century composers recognized that the rich sonorities of the bass clarinet could offer, however, a wide range of expression and they began, very occasionally at first,to compose for it as a solo instrument. The selections on this disc are representative of a small, largely forgotten repertoire of solo and chamber pieces dating from the second half of the nineteenth century until the 1930s. The majority of the pieces on this disc have not previously been recorded. In keeping with the aesthetics of the period, these selections allow the profound voice of the bass clarinet, together with piano, organ, or string quartet, to produce a luminous sound and a musicality “full of bliss; a bliss which transcends all sorrow.” ( Paradiso XXX, 40-42, by Dante Alighieri)