The Ridenour Lyrique 570c

Designed to provide top professional performance features by Tom Ridenour, the C clarinet will exceed all that you hoped a C clarinet could ever be at an affordable price.

The experience of playing the Lyrique C clarinet dispels all the past myths about clarinets pitched in C. The tone is never thin or strident and the scale never "wacky". Rather, the Lyrique C is characterized by a warm, sweet tone that is closer to the human voice than perhaps any other wind instrument. Even the high notes retain a beautifully round, sweet quality at all dynamic levels.

The Lyrique also has perhaps the most even, efficient blowing resistance of any clarinet, giving the player the feeling that the clarinet has all but vanished and one is simply singing the music without any instrumental medium.

The scale of the Lyrique C is superior to the vast majority of professional Bb clarinets and careful, detailed custom tuning by Tom Ridenour raises the bar yet higher.

Like the Bb and A, the Lyrique C clarinet uses a standard Bb clarinet mouthpiece, making switching from one to the other in performance easy and seamless.

The Lyrique 570 C clarinet is extremely versatile: it can play music directly off keyboard, play oboe, flute or violin parts, add the music of the baroque and classical period to your next recital and never have to transpose opera and oratorio parts. The possible practical usage of the Lyrique C is virtually endless! Once you discover how much fun and musically satisfying the Lyrique is to play you'll actually look for occasions you can display its agile response, seamless legato, voice-like sweetness and effortless, elegant phrasing.

The Lyrique C clarinet has proven itself worldwide in many different professional contexts including the Welsh National Opera, the Royal Philharmonic, BBC orchestras and numerous other professional organizations.

See for yourself

A demonstration of the Ridenour Lyrique 570c by our founder Leslie Craven.