Bernhard Henrik Crusell: Progressive Duets for Two Clarinets, Op. 6

Description

Bernhard Henrik Crusell was born on October 15, 1775, in Uusikaupunki, the Finnish name of the town of Nystad. He began his career as a military musician and served as principal clarinetist of the Kungliga Hovkapellet in Stockholm from 1793 to 1833, frequently performing as a soloist and chamber musician.
In 1801, he was elected a member of the Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien, a prestigious recognition awarded for his musical talent and the beauty of his tone. In 1803, he spent six months in Paris, where he studied composition with Henri Montan Berton and François-Joseph Gossec, and became acquainted with composers such as Luigi Cherubini, Étienne Nicolas Méhul, Pierre Baillot, and Daniel Auber.
He also formed friendships with the principal clarinetist of the Paris Opera, Jean-Xavier Lefèvre, and the orchestra’s concertmaster Rodolphe Kreutzer. His true instrumental training had taken place earlier, in 1798 in Berlin, with Franz Tausch.
In 1811, in search of a publisher, he traveled to Leipzig, where he found the Bureau de musique, owned by Ambrosius Kühnel, which published his Clarinet Concerto in E-flat major, Op. 1 and Clarinet Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 2. Even after the firm was taken over by Carl Friedrich Peters, Crusell continued to publish further instrumental works with the same house.
In 1818, Crusell was appointed music director of both Grenadier regiments of the Guards in Linköping, a position he held until 1836. There, he established a fund for widows and students to support musicians and their families. The funds were raised through concerts he organized in the city church from 1823 onward, in which not only his own music but also works by other composers were performed, often arranged by himself.
In 1822, he began to suffer from an illness that prevented him from fulfilling his orchestral duties for a couple of years. He therefore undertook a health journey to Karlsbad. During this trip, he stopped in Berlin, where he attended performances of Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber and Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini. In Dresden, he met Giacomo Meyerbeer and again Weber, and in Leipzig he reached agreements to publish additional works.
Crusell was highly active in Stockholm’s social and cultural life. In 1822, he became a member of the Götiska förbundet, a literary society founded in 1811. Like many prominent cultural figures of his time, he was also a member of Freemasonry, taking part in its rich musical activities.
In 1838, he received an award from the Svenska Akademien for his translations of foreign operas into Swedish verse—an activity for which his linguistic skills and deep familiarity with opera made him particularly distinguished—as well as for his musical settings of texts by national poets. He died in Stockholm on July 28, 1838.

Crusell was renowned both as a clarinet virtuoso and as a composer of music for clarinet and other wind instruments. His songs, intended for domestic performance in private homes and often set to texts by Esaias Tegnér, were also highly popular during the 19th century. In 1827, a writer in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described him as the most beloved of Swedish composers.
Only in the second half of the 20th century were his concertos and chamber works rediscovered, republished, and recorded by leading performers of the time. Crusell also enjoyed particular recognition in Finland: in 1801, when the country still belonged to Sweden, he gave concerts in Helsinki and Turku, where local authorities emphasized his Finnish origins. He holds an important place in both Swedish and Finnish musical history; among composers born in Finland, only Jean Sibelius achieved greater international recognition. In the 19th century, he was even regarded as the “Beethoven of wind instruments.”

Crusell closely followed the development of the clarinet and progressively adopted more advanced instruments. His career coincided with significant technical improvements: his first instrument had only two keys, but he likely soon adopted the five-key model already standard in the Swedish military by the 1790s. In 1803, Lefèvre introduced a sixth key. In 1811, during a visit to Dresden, Crusell met the instrument maker Heinrich Grenser and discussed the advantages of additional keys; he subsequently used Grenser clarinets with 8–11 keys for many years. These instruments featured interchangeable joints, allowing performance in B-flat or A. He also transitioned from the older embouchure technique (reed facing upward) to the modern one (reed facing downward), which contributed to the beauty of his tone. In 1822, he discussed further developments with Grenser’s successor, Gustaf Wiesner.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Crusell was regarded as one of the leading proponents in Sweden of Classicism and early Romanticism. Although rooted in the Classical tradition, his music reflects the spirit and expressive qualities of Romanticism.

Three Duos, Op. 6 for Two Clarinets
The Trois Duos, Op. 6, published in 1821, belong to Crusell’s later instrumental works. They were conceived with progressively increasing technical difficulty. On modern instruments, equipped with more advanced key mechanisms, this progression is less evident; however, when performed on period instruments, the duos clearly illustrate what was considered easy or difficult in the composer’s time.
From a technical perspective, the duos form a homogeneous set: the writing is both brilliant and elegant, with Crusell’s characteristic syncopations present throughout, and without significant differences in range. The first duet is in F major, the second in D minor, and the third in C major, although it includes a passage in C minor that presents a real challenge on historical instruments.
The structure follows established stylistic principles: fast and virtuosic sections in the first movement; slow, lyrical writing in the second; and dance rhythms in the third. The classical fast–slow–fast model reflects strong ties to the German tradition, with clear influences from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Allegro–Adagio–Rondo Allegro), particularly in the duos K. 423 and K. 292.
In Duet No. 1 in F major, rapid passages are avoided and the tonal scheme remains close to F major. The final movement follows the rondo form (ABACA + coda), with the C section in the minor mode.

In Duet No. 2 in D minor, the melodic material is treated differently. Clarinetists of the time were influenced by French opera, and this duet reflects stylistic elements of early 19th-century French operatic music. The first movement is clearly in sonata form. The second movement, marked Siciliano, features the characteristic rhythmic pattern and has an andante character. The third movement, Rondo alla Svedese, reflects Crusell’s interest in folklore, with a melody suggestive of dance music.

Duet No. 3 in C major shows a further evolution in melodic writing. The first movement opens with a clearly defined theme; the second is an Andante in 2/4, with a dotted rhythm in the main theme (Andante con moto). The third movement, an Allegro vivace, is highly energetic and features melodies with a distinctly popular character. Its form can be interpreted as a simple ABA rondo with a coda that revisits the main theme in varied forms.