Francisco Gomez (1866-1938)
Lorito Caprice
Lorito (“Little Chatterbox”) was first performed at a Queen’s Hall Promenade Concert on September 10 1898 by Manuel Gomez, brother of the composer. Manuel and Francisco were born in Spain and both studied the clarinet with Cyrille Rose in Paris before coming to England, where they played in the Queen’s Hall and Covent Garden orchestras for twenty years, Manuel as principal and Francisco as second and bass. Manuel, who is credited with introducing the Boehm clarinet to England, went on to become principal clarinet of the newly founded London Symphony Orchestra in 1903, whilst Francisco gained a considerable reputation as a player of the bass clarinet and the basset horn. He died in January 1938, having spent his last seven years as principal clarinet of the Belfast Radio Orchestra and the Belfast Philharmonic Society.
© Colin Bradbury
Lorito has been recorded by Colin Bradbury and Oliver Davies on The Art of the Clarinettist (CC0008).