Emerged from obscurity

The composer Christian Gottlieb Müller (1800-1863) is probably quite unknown to many musicians. Perhaps the fact that he was Richard Wagner's teacher may lend him a little more luster. And this is certainly not without good reason: the score of the 15-minute bass trombone concerto from 1832 (already printed by Breitkopf & Härtel at the time) testifies to the good craftsmanship that Müller had acquired through his intensive study of Beethoven's works. The orchestration (2 woodwinds, 2 brass, 2 trp, timp, strings), the key (E flat major), the cadenza-like beginning of the solo instrument, the virtuosity in the 3rd movement and many other features (e.g. melodic line in octaves between flute and clarinet in the 2nd movement) are reminiscent of the 5th piano concerto by his idol Ludwig van Beethoven, written around 20 years earlier.

The Concertino was long considered lost, especially the orchestral version. Only a rather flawed, handwritten piano reduction from the 1950s kept the memory of the work alive. It was not until 2004 that a complete set of orchestral parts surprisingly emerged, forming the basis for the present score. The individual parts are available as rental material, the score and a proper piano reduction are for sale. A truly pleasing alternative to Ernst Sachse's Bass Trombone Concertino - not least for orchestral auditions.

Christian Gottlieb Müller: Concertino for bass trombone and orchestra in E flat major, edited by Nick Pfefferkorn, score PB 33001, € 36.00, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2012/2018