Johannes Simon Mayr (1763-1845): Bagatelles for basset horn, clarinet and flute
Born in Bavaria, Mayr made his career in Italy as composer of Italian operas which were performed from Venice to New York, though ultimately eclipsed by Rossini's, which Felix Skowronek believes may be said to echo Mayr. Donizetti was his devoted student, Napoleon is said to have offered him a position (refused by Mayr), and Verdi took time off from a difficult production to travel to his funeral in Bergamo, Italy The Bagatelles reveal Mayr's skiII in writing for wind instruments and his familiarity with the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven whose works he introduced to Bergamo audiences; one of the Bagatelles, in fact, uses a melody from Beethoven's sixth symphony. Nowadays, these delightful pieces are often heard in arrangements replacing basset horn with bassoon, a substitution which succeeds better than a similar attempt in the Mendelssohn Concertpieces.

Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813): Sonata for clarinet and fortepiano
Born a Bohemian serf, he was taught organ, voice and violin in his youth, at age eighteen was paid organist and at twenty-one choir-master. His remarkable musicality drew the attention of a local Countess who secured his first composition lessons in Vienna where soon he was one of the aristocracy's favorite teachers. In 1762, he met and socialized with the boy Mozart and began studies with Dittersdorf, himself teaching the destined-for-fame Ignace Pleyel. Twenty years later, a famous visitor wrote of hearing Haydn, Dittersdorf, Vanhall and Mozart in quartet, being quite unimpressed by Vanhall's cello playing and Mozart's tenor voice, but awed by the august company: "A greater treat cannot be imagined." The Sonata was published seven years before Vanhall's death with a violin part written in, to make the piece better known, since only a few amateurs played clarinet.

Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791): Sonata in C major K. 14 (1764) for flute and fortepiano
The young Wolfgang intended: this and five other clavecin [harpsichord] sonatas to be 'playable with accompaniment of violin or flute", but - maybe unwittingly - wrote them in such a way that without either violin or flute they would lack essential musical and harmonic content. At the time of composition of these harpsichord sonatas, the Mozarts lived in London and Wolfgang socialized with CPE Bach who, like our performers tonight, preferred the fortepiano to the harpsichord; Mozart wrote thirteen years later that he too preferred the piano because "in whatever way I touch the keys, the tone is always even". While in earlier generations composers used keyboard instruments in only subservient roles, in Mozart's youth dominance shifted increasingly to the piano as evidenced by this sonata.

Wolfgang A. Mozart: Aria "Parto,parto..." (1791) from La Clemenza di Tito K. 621 for flute, fortepiano and clarinet (arr. Jeffrey Cohan)
Mozart's La clemenza di Tito was first performed in Prague, three months before his death. He brought his friend, the clarinetist Anton Stadler, along to perform the brilliant clarinet obbligato to the aria "Parto, parto", sung by the character Sextus, a male soprano. The words are "I go, I go, but you my love make peace with me". The 'love' is the very disturbed character Vitellia, who has been plotting against the very forgiving emperor Titus. The clarinet was evidently a very bright spot in the opera, for it was a great success at the first performance. It is Mr. Cohan's duty to duplicate the formidable improvisational skills of those giants of vocalism, the castrati, by singing the role of Sextus on his flute.