Clarinet spotlight: in conversation with Mark van de Wiel

You were the Principal Clarinet of the Philharmonia for 25 years. What are some of your fondest memories from this time? 

Playing great music to the highest level every week and having to develop one’s own playing to keep up with the superb sounds coming from everyone else was a constant challenge and inspiration. The warmth of sound and communication in the Philharmonia is unbeatable. Add to this travelling the world with a group of the most skilled and characterful people one could imagine, and I gained a deep richness of experience. The many trips to Japan with its great concert halls and wonderful food were a highlight.

If you could choose just one standout concert from your Philharmonia career, what would it be? 

Impossible to do that, in 25 years with three great Principal Conductors and so many inspiring guests! But I’ll pick out Santtu’s Alpine Symphony at Royal Festival Hall, Esa-Pekka’s exhilarating Rite of Spring, and the unforgettable 2011 Mahler tour of all the symphonies in 16 cities across Europe, with Lorin Maazel. The Royal Festival Hall concerts are preserved on Signum, and sound amazing. I often revisit them.

You’re performing not one, but two concertos with us on 5 March 2026. How do you prepare – both in advance and on concert day – for this kind of event? 

Preparation is certainly the word! Some of the technical preparation takes time, but the most important process is looking at the score and thinking about what the composer really meant, as that’s the key to the interpretation. Benny Goodman commissioned the Copland Concerto, probably to help establish himself as a classical player, whereas Copland, writing for the great jazz player, apparently encouraged a jazzy approach when asked. We have to find the right balance! With a brand new piece such as the Dove it’s important to look for the character and meaning behind the notes even in the early stages of learning it. Being able to ask the composer helps, of course!

Copland’s music offers a specific and beautiful sound-world. Do you have a favourite moment in the piece? 

The cadenza, the bridge between the gloriously lyrical first movement and the high spirited second, is a written out jazz style improvisation, but is also a close working of the harmonic ambiguities which underpin the whole piece. An amazing couple of minutes.

You have a long-standing friendship with Jonathan Dove. How do composer and soloist work together when commissioning a new piece of music? 

When the Philharmonia and I approached Jonathan, I asked for a concerto which both showed the lyrical side of the clarinet and was challenging to play. After the initial conversation, I left him to it, although we did later agree a number of alterations, including some additional music. Jonathan has even made the lyrical passages challenging, so I got what I asked for! It’s an enthralling and exciting new concerto.

Are there any particular moments the audience should listen out for in Rainbow? 

Of course the many arcs of the rainbow established high in the sky at the very start, which Jonathan uses to explore the rainbow colours using different harmonies, which are explored further in the cadenza. The meditative slow movement is followed by the entry of a much more fiery animal representing the oranges and reds of the finale.

It’s rather nice that in one of my earliest performances of the Copland in the 1980s, Jonathan was in the viola section, and that was apparently the first time he heard a clarinet concerto!

The warmth of sound and communication in the Philharmonia is unbeatable.