Solo de Concours - Clarinet and Piano

Henri Rabaud (1873-1949) was a French composer, conductor, and administrator.  A student of Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire, he wrote operas, orchestral music, and chamber music.  A conductor as well, he led operatic and orchestral performances in France and conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra for one season, 1918-1919, after Karl Muck and before Pierre Monteux.  He succeeded Gabriel Faure as director of the Paris Conservatoire and held the position from 1921 to 1941. 

Following the German Occupation of France in mid-1940, Rabaud approached the Nazis about limiting the proportion of Jews studying or teaching at the Conservatoire and carried out an ethnic analysis of the Conservatoire population.  The full implications of this analysis were somewhat mitigated after the ascendancy of Claude Delvincourt as director in 1941.  Rabaud continued collaborating with the Vichy government by serving on a professional musicians' committee.

Solo de concours, a test piece for Conservatoire students, was composed in 1901.  Several print versions are available which seem to be reprints of the original Alphonse Leduc edition.  Leduc's "Nouvelle Edition," in other words, the successor of the original edition, dates from 1951.  The most legible solo parts in these printings are found in the Leduc new edition and in the Southern Music publication (SS282), in which the solo part has been re-engraved.  This solo is easier than the Messager Solo de concours, and has three distinct sections.  The first is rhapsodic and free, the second slow, and the third is quick and accelerates toward the end.