Sonata for clarinet and piano in E-flat major op. 167

This Sonata for clarinet and piano is part of a set of three works, together with a Sonata for oboe and piano (op. 166) and a Sonata for bassoon and piano (op. 168), all three composed in Paris in May and June 1921, shortly before Saint-Saëns's death. The composer’s initial ambition was in fact to write a work for every wind instrument: “At the moment I am devoting my remaining strength to giving instruments that are less fortunate in this respect the means to be heard,” Saint-Saëns wrote in April 1921, thinking also, before he died, of a piece for cor anglais. This ambitious project was never completed, but it led to the creation of these three sonatas, op. 166-168, whose respective qualities make them important (yet little documented) works in the nineteenth-century French repertoire for wind instruments. Dedicated to Auguste-Éléonore Périer, professor at the Paris Conservatoire and clarinettist at the Opéra-Comique, the Sonata for clarinet and piano in E-flat major offers, in four movements, an elegant overview of the clarinet's tonal and technical possibilities. The delicate, refined character of the Allegretto's theme in 12/8 time is followed by a mischievous Allegro animato punctuated by a few bold chromaticisms. The sonata continues with a solemn, sombre Lento in 3/2 and concludes with an energetic, joyful Molto allegro in 4/4, whose nostalgic repetition of the opening Allegretto’s theme ensures the coherence of the work.