Anton Paul Stadler was an Austrian clarinet and basset horn player for whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote, amongst others, both his Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto.
12 Facts About Anton Stadler
1.
2.
Anton Stadler was born in 1753 in a small town near Vienna; in 1756 his family moved into the city where his brother Johann was born.
3.
In 1781 Anton Stadler was in the service of count Dimitri Galizin.
4.
Brother Locz [sic] will play the great octave bassoon'; Anton Stadler's Partita is no longer extant.
5.
Still, much evidence remains to show that Anton Stadler was at best irresponsible, and at worst, conniving.
6.
Constanze Mozart's sister, Sophie Haibel, recounted to Georg Nikolaus von Nissen how Anton Stadler stole from Mozart, and a letter from Constanze to the publisher Johann Andre suggests that she and others held no high opinion of him.
7.
Anton Stadler never paid for the instruments, nor for K 622, which Nissen claims was commissioned from Mozart.
8.
Anton Stadler's instrument is known as a basset clarinet, a term coined by Jiri Kratochvil to reflect its kinship with the basset horn and to avoid confusion with the bass clarinet, whose orchestral career developed only during the 19th century.
9.
Reviews of Anton Stadler's playing are generally flattering, such as comments in the Berlin Musikalisches Wochenblatt of 1792, where he is described as 'brilliant and accomplished; he has acquired a precision which shows his confidence'.
10.
Anton Stadler was invited by a Hungarian count, Georg Festitics, to help organize a school of music in Keszthely near the Plattensee.
11.
Anton Stadler has wise words on how to behave in the profession, suggesting instrumentalists 'not to drown out singers, not hold back or press forward in tempo, not publicly censure another's chance mistake, nor ridicule their colleagues'.
12.
Anton Stadler died of emaciation and was buried on 17 June 1812 on the old Catholic cemetery in Matzleinsdorf.