Dear Mozart,

I know a lot of people think you were a genius – don’t get me wrong; I think you’re a genius too, at least when it comes to music – but I've spent a lot of time playing your clarinet concerto (in A major, K. 622), and Hezekiah and I had a few comments to make. In case you were wondering, Hezekiah’s my clarinet. Did you ever name any of your instruments? Zorobabel might have been a nice name for a piano. Or maybe Jechonias?

Anyway, I just wanted to ask if you needed to put quite so many notes into your clarinet concerto, especially in some parts of the first movement. It really does sound nice, but some of those long sixteenth note runs start making my fingers get all tangled up with each other. At least some of them are slurred, but people lost your original copy of the concerto with all your markings about articulation and dynamics, so the publishers today have to guess at how you meant it to be. I hope you didn't mean for everything to be tongued, because then I’d have been playing it wrong and it would be even harder than it is already.

And then in the second movement, I don’t think there are too many notes there, but it’s all slow and legato, which is difficult for Hezekiah. If you ever heard me and Hezekiah playing your clarinet concerto, I just wanted to make sure that you knew we weren't trying to insult your piece by playing it badly. It’s just that Hezekiah wasn't made for the most advanced music. He’s enjoying the pep band now, though. Maybe you could come and see us sometime?

Lastly, the third movement is my favorite of the concerto, but there’s one particularly annoying part. First off, there are some tricky sixteenth note arpeggios. Second, these arpeggios end really high. When I say high, I mean high enough that people might need to start checking their eardrums for bleeding. Finally, between each set of arpeggios is a sixteenth note rest. I don’t know if you've ever played a woodwind or brass instrument, but sixteenth note rests present an interesting dilemma for those instruments. At the speed of the third movement, a sixteenth note is too short to take a proper breath, but too long to stop the air and wait. You sometimes end up taking a half breath then having to rush to play again and in the process half choking. Just something for you to think about.

Well, I hope I haven’t detained you from your composing too long. I really do like your clarinet concerto, and thought we could have a little discussion about it, musician to composer. Happy composing!