Anton Stadler

Anton Paul Stadler (28 June 1753, Bruck an der Leitha – 15 June 1812, Vienna) was an Austrian clarinet and basset horn player for whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote, amongst others, both his Clarinet Quintet (K 581) and Clarinet Concerto (K 622). Stadler's name is inextricably linked to Mozart's compositions for these two instruments.

Stadler was born in 1753 in a small town near Vienna; in 1756 his family moved into the city where his brother Johann was born. Even though both became famous as clarinet and basset horn players, the Journal des Luxus und der Moden described Anton in 1801 as 'a great artist on many wind instruments', and in a letter to Ignatz von Beecke, applying for a position in the Wallerstein orchestra (6 November 1781), Anton himself writes that they 'can also play a little violin and viol'. In the same letter he stated that both he and his brother 'could supplement orchestral skills with duets, concertos, wind octets and basset horn trios', the latter together with Raymund Griesbacher.

A concert on 21 March 1773 at the Kärntnertortheater, of which a programme survived, appears to mark the first public appearance of the two brothers in Vienna; further recorded appearances include a concert on 19 December 1775 and two concerts (12 and 14 March 1780) in which they took part in a concerto for five winds by Joseph Starzer. Pamela Poulin writes:

Until 1782 Anton and Johann held various positions. According to the open account books of the imperial court of 1779 they were hired by the court on a per-service basis. A concert programme of 12 March identifies the brothers as being in the service of Count Carl of Palm. As of October 1780 Anton was employed by the Piaristen religious order of Maria Treu as a 'manorial musician'. In 1781 Anton was in the service of count Dimitri Galizin. In the same year Kaiser Joseph II designated their services as 'indispensable'.

Mozart's first encounter with Stadler may have been around 1781, following his own move to Vienna. In October 1781 he wrote of the first performance of the sextet version of his E-flat Serenade K 375: "The six gentlemen who executed it are poor beggars who, however, play quite well together, particularly the first clarinet and the two horns." On 8 February 1782 the Stadlers were invited to join the orchestra of the Viennese imperial court, and the following year they were members of the emperor's Harmonie, in which Stadler played second clarinet. Stadler's evident preoccupation with the chalumeau register is significant in view of Mozart's subsequent exploitation of its idiomatic potential.

...
Wikipedia