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Some time ago I remember listening to the radio and hearing a work by Mozart that consisted entirely of clarinets. There must have been 6 or more clarinets playing together and it was one of the most beautiful works I had ever heard. The guy on the radio said that it was the only work that Mozart composed that was all clarinets. Has anybody ever heard of this? I've searched the four corners of the internet and come up empty.

The Maurerischer Trauermusik K 479/477a has five clarinets, if memory serves; it also has oboes, a contrabassoon (well, a “Gran Fagotto” at any rate), and strings. Can't think of a six-clarinet-only one just at the minute...

BrandonS wrote: The guy on the radio said that it was the only work that Mozart composed that was all clarinets.

He was wrong. Mozart didn't write a single piece for only clarinets. He also wrote five divertimenti for three basset horns (as well as twelve duos for 'horns' which may also be basset, but is more likely brass horns),

The piece he was talking about is most likely, however, the Adagio in Bb K 484a which is for Two Clarinets and Three Basset Horns (http://imslp.org/wiki/Adagio_in_B-flat_ ... Amadeus%29)
(There's also a fragment for that combination)


The Masonic Funeral March K 477a is a full orchestra piece, so obviously isn't it.

In a broad sense, since basset horns are part of the clarinet family, the announcer would have been correct if the work was the K484a. I can't find a recording of it on YouTube, but I did find a CD shop with samples on the internet:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/alb ... _id=209952

though their cataloguing number is K411 (484a), so in the list of samples, it is listed as K411. You can see if it is what you heard.

Well yes, but he also wrote those trios (which while originally assigned an appendix number, is pretty much considered a legit Mozart work now).

Of course, radio announcers being wrong is hardly an odd thing.