Clarinet Concerto no. 1 in F minor, op. 73

Weber met the clarinettist Heinrich Baermann in Munich in March 1811 and wrote him a concertino within a fortnight; the King of Bavaria heard it and immediately commissioned two full concertos. The first, in F minor, was finished in May and Baermann played it in Munich on 13 June 1811. Its slow movement sets the clarinet against three horns alone, a sound Weber had not used before and did not repeat. The concerto reached print only in 1822, by which time Baermann had carried it across Europe in manuscript.