Dieter Klöcker - Busoni: Clarinet Chamber Music (2000)

Dieter Klöcker was recognized as one of the finest German clarinetists of his generation. In additional, he was a conductor renowned for his numerous acclaimed concerts and recordings with the chamber ensemble he founded, Consortium Classicum. The focus of Klöcker and his group was music for winds and strings from the Classical and Romantic periods, with the works of Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert figuring prominently on their programs, as well as those of lesser-known figures like Cartellieri, Ries, Reicha, and others. Klöcker made numerous recordings -- more than 100 with the Consortium Classicum alone -- and for a variety of labels, including EMI, Orfeo, Novalis, and MD&G. Klöcker also served as a professor of clarinet for more than 25 years and authored many scholarly articles on music.

Klöcker was born in Wuppertal, Germany, on April 13, 1936. As a youth he studied clarinet with Karl Kroll, then enrolled at the Northwest German Music Academy in Detmold, where his most important teacher was Jost Michaels. Klöcker played clarinet for about a decade in various German orchestras before founding Consortium Classicum in the 1960s. Over the years the ensemble consisted of about 14 players drawn from the ranks of Germany's most talented wind and string soloists, orchestra members, and university professors.

By the mid-'70s Klöcker and his orchestra had established a reputation as one of the finest chamber ensembles before the public. Among their earliest acclaimed recordings was the 1974 EMI release of Haydn's Six Notturni. In the midst of his early successes Klöcker accepted a professorship in 1975 at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, where he taught until 2001.

Over the years Klöcker led the Consortium Classicum in numerous concerts throughout Europe, the Americas, the Far East, and Australia and also turned out numerous popular recordings. In addition, Klöcker made television appearances with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey, and Helen Donath, and he wrote a number of essays on music in the 1990s.

Klöcker remained active into the new century in both the concert hall and recording studio. Among his recordings is the 2003 DVD of Cartellieri clarinet and flute concertos on MD&G. Several of Klöcker's earliest EMI recordings have been re-issued by the CPO label, among them the 2006 (originally 1974) Mozart Clarinet Quintet, K. 581, and Stadler Trio for three bassett horns.