Schmidt: Quintet in A Major for Piano Left-Hand, Clarinet, Violin, Viola & Cello
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99Mar 11, 2016
This recording contains a charming five-movement work by German composer Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) - Quintet in A major for Piano Left-Hand, Clarinet, Violin, Viola & Cello. Musicians featured on this recording are pianist Kae Hosoda-Ayer, clarinetist Christopher Ayer, violinist Jennifer Dalmas, violist Kathryn Steely, and cellist Evgeni Raychev. This performance was recorded in June of 2014 at Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
Kalabis: Sonatas for Cello, Clarinet, Violin & Piano / Jamnik, Paulova, Fiser, Kahanek
Supraphon
CD
$31.99Oct 05, 2018
Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006), one of the most distinguished figures of 20th-century Czech music, wrote dozens of opuses, mainly instrumental pieces, including for his wife, the world-renowned harpsichordist Zuzana Ružickova. As he himself put it, his aim was to create music rooted in his country, music for educated listeners. Although he also drew inspiration from 20th-century classics, Kalabis arrived at a synthetic style of his own, an alternative to the rational compositional techniques – a Neo-Romantic alternative, akin to Neo-Classicism. Besides the first ever album of Kalabis’s complete piano oeuvre, Ivo Kahanek and other leading Czech instrumentalists have recorded the composer’s three sonatas. The one for cello reflects the dramatic events in Czechoslovakia between June and September 1968: the months of euphoria of the Prague Spring, followed by disillusionment and resignation in the wake of the Warsaw Pact’s invasion, which for two decades to come would numb all hopes of freedom. The clarinet sonata (1969) too clearly refers to the time of its coming into being: drama, grief and sorrow, escalated into harrowing helplessness. The elliptical and coherent violin sonata (1982) places emphasis on the instrument’s typical ethos – melodiousness, bright sound and soulfulness. After 3 albums featuring Kalabis’s symphonies and concertos, the present recording affords yet another insight into the composer’s musical universe.
"This is a convenient recital, presenting—unusually, it turns out, in a single program—the clarinet-and-piano works of Debussy and his contemporary Florent Schmitt, plus those of the demi-Six Honegger, Milhaud, and Poulenc (the other three were Auric, Durey, and Tailleferre), who were more or less a generation younger. Despite a name that sounds as German as, say, “John Barbirolli,” clarinetist Ralph Manno is a native German, making the program all the more atypical. This disc follows soon after Oehms’s release of a two-CD set featuring Manno and Alfredo Perl in music of Brahms; both that and the present disc, however, turn out to be reissues of 1995 recordings.
Manno’s performance of Debussy’s Rhapsodie (there never was a deuxième) is languorous at first, then fluid and dynamic as the music demands. His sound, appropriately international rather than characteristically German, is attractive and well focused, and his technique and control are impressive. The aptly named Petite pièce, written as a sight-reading exercise, is smooth and expressive.
The Lorraine-born Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) should be better known; he is remembered today mostly for the extravagant, almost expressionistic La Tragédie de Salomé. The present Andantino, by contrast, is brief, modest, and perhaps even a bit sentimental...
If the composers who made up Les Six had any musical trait in common (and Milhaud, for one, denied that they did), it is a quintessentially French irreverence, even impudence. (Two of the movements of Milhaud’s sonatine are marked Très rude.) The Honegger and Milhaud sonatines were both composed in the 1920s; the former is an aphoristic work in three movements lasting only six minutes all together; Manno plays with impressive command here... The late, folksy Duo Concertant is an attractive example of Milhaud’s Provençal style; the slight Caprice, running under two minutes, serves as a sort of encore...this disc can be recommended for its overview of the core French clarinet recital repertoire."
The present release features contemporary music for clarinet and electronic media. Fernando Domínguez is currently the main exponent of the contemporary repertoire for clarinet in Mexico. In addition, he teaches courses aimed at students of composition on contemporary technique and writing for clarinet are carried out on a daily basis in the country's professional schools. His repertoire includes works by Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmout Lachernmann, Pierre Boulez, Isang Yun, and Eliott Carter, among others. As a soloist, he has performed with the Life and Movement Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the National Preparatory School, Symphony Orchestra of the National Polytechnic Institute, Chamber Orchestra of Fine Arts, Chamber Orchestra of Fine Arts, Carlos Chávez Symphony Orchestra and OFUNAM.
Rebay: Complete Works For Clarinet & Guitar / Magistrelli, Laura
Brilliant Classics
CD
$13.99May 31, 2011
Here's a genuine rarity: Ferdinand Rebay (1878-1953) has been hitherto unknown outside a small circle of guitar connoiseurs, but that should change thanks to this attractive set of sonatas and dances, all receiving their first recordings at the hands of two talented young Italian musicians. Rebay was Viennese born and bred. In 1901 he entered the piano class of Joseph Hofmann at the Vienna Conservatory and studied composition with the eminent pedagogue Robert Fuchs, who counted Mahler, Wolf, Sibelius and von Zemlinsky among his students.
Four years later, when leaving the Conservatory with a distinction in composition, Rebay's catalogue already numbered around 100 works, including a piano concerto dedicated to Prof. Hofmann. He continued to compose prolifically, mainly in the area of vocal music, pro-ducing around 100 choral works, 400 Lieder and two operas. After the Anschluss in 1938, Rebay lost his teaching positions as well as his pension and was reintegrated only in 1945, a few months before his definite retirement. Rebay's interest in writing for the guitar was triggered by his niece, the guitarist Gerta Hammerschmid (1906-1985) and by her teacher, his friend and colleague at the Musikakademie, Jakob Ortner (1879-1959), who probably introduced him to the technical possibilities of the instrument. He died, almost forgotten, in Vienna in 1953.
Among Rebay's most ambitious and important guitar works are the duos for guitar and a string or wind instrument. Substantial works, with a duration between 15 and 25 minutes, these duos have no match in the guitar repertoire; the Sonatas on this disc are among their number, and complemented by stylish arrangements made by Rebay of several of Beethoven's German Dances. The scarce original repertoire for clarinet and guitar, limited during the 19th century essentially to Heinrich Neumann's six serenades is almost trebled by Rebay's substantial contribution.
OTHER INFORMATION: - World Premiere Recordings - Detailed booklet notes on Rebay's life and work - www.luigimagistrelli.com
He is perhaps best known now for his clarinet concertos, to which his quartets including the instrument form a not insubstantial pendant: they, too, are full of virtuosic writing for the instrument, who placed forward in a soloistic position, with the string parts mostly moving together to accompany it. In the late Clarinet Quintet, however, the instruments enjoy a more equal balance of the kind familiar from Brahms's chamber music for the instrument: indeed, in the opening movement's fugue, the clarinet is the last voice to enter. Here the harmonies are cloudier, more Romantically inclined, and a more reflective spirit presides even in the quick outer movements: there is a rapt and melancholic Andante which deserves far greater popularity. These new recordings come from Dutch instrumentalists who have specialized in this repertoire. As principal clarinettist of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, Henk de Graaf has recorded Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (as soloist) and much chamber music from the late-Classical/Early Romantic period by Crusell, Weber, Spohr and others.
Bradbury and Roberts are two of the most respected British instrumentalists of today. They renew their working relationship, following previous collaborations, in this very fine performance of three great German works. "Bradbury's technique is faultless, as is Roberts's" - Fanfare (USA)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is by far the most famous son of the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach. CPE Bach composed a great deal of music for the clarinet as either a solo or chamber music instrument.; This release is the first recording of these pieces, which were either composed for the clarinet, or rewritten to make the clarinet the leading melodic instrument.; One of the most famous Italian clarinetists of our day, Luigi Magistrelli is a master at finding previously unknown clarinet music and bringing it to the fore. He performs these works beautiful
The Clarinet Concertos of Mozart and Nielsen stand as the two greatest such works in the repertoire for the instrument, twin examples of what can be achieved by composers who have been truly inspired to write for the clarinet, using its uniquely expressive qualities to produce enduring and comprehensively masterly compositions. One of the most talented young musicians of our day, Julian Bliss has already appeared as soloist with orchestras worldwide and in recital at concert halls in the UK, France, Israel, Germany and America.
But Not Forgotten - Clarinet Music by African American Composers / Eley, DeSa
Sono Luminus
CD
$18.99Jul 31, 2012
Past and present come together in this vibrant release from Sono Luminus, But Not Forgotten: Music by African-American Composers for Clarinet & Piano, as clarinetist Marcus Eley, and pianist Lucerne DeSa display the timeless class and musical stylings of composers whose music runs rich with the knowledge and desire of gifts to be returned through the notes on a page, and the instrument in one's hand.
Marcus Eley writes, "For many years, I have had the privilege of performing recitals featuring African-American composers for clarinet and piano. I have felt these composers needed a format, a champion, to make certain their compositions for my instrument were not ignored. In current classical or “art music”, there is little representation in mainstream recorded music of the African-American composer. Vocal music tends to be the exception. However, for solo wind instrument, especially the clarinet, there is nothing. I want this CD of clarinet and piano music to celebrate these African-American composers. Further, it is my desire that their unique voices are heard and not forgotten."
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REVIEW:
Marcus Eley has done a great service to African-American composers. He is a brilliantly talented advocate for his instrument who successfully exploits everything a clarinet can do while Lucerne DeSa is an extremely sympathetic partner. Together they have created a disc of unalloyed joy. I sincerely hope that there will be more in the pipeline as he suggests this is only the tip of a musical iceberg in terms of similar works by other unknown composers.
This is a first-rate program of works for clarinet and strings. Tasha Warren brings these works to life, aided by a superb group of instrumentalists. Tasha Warren, assistant professor of chamber music at the Michigan State University College of Music, is an avid teacher and international performer. She has premiered numerous solo clarinet and chamber works working closely with composers and conductors including Shulamit Ran, Augusta Read Thomas, Cliff Colnot, and Oliver Knussen. She has recorded with Innova, Alba, and SCI Records, the I.U. New Music Ensemble, Hal Leonard Productions, CBC Radio, and PBC Korea Television. Crystal Records released her album, The Naked Clarinet, in December 2009, which garnered praise in reviews from International Record Review, Fanfare Magazine, The Clarinet Magazine and others.
The two works on this release are highly contrasting- Johannes Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet and David Bruce’s Gumboots. David Bruce describes his inspiration for Gumboots: “…it was born out of the brutal labour conditions in South Africa under Apartheid, in which black miners were chained together and wore Gumboots while they worked in the flooded gold mines… slapping the boots and chains was used by the workers as a form of communication which was otherwise banned… this later developed into a form of dance.” Clarinetist Julian Bliss performs here alongside the Carducci Quartet.
World-renowned clarinetist F. gerard Errante's latest release is a retrospective compilation of avant-garde works previously recorded by Errante in the LP era. These innovative works of the late 20th century, mostly written for or dedicated to Errante, display his wide-ranging mastery and consummate musicality in an idiom that is challenging as well as engaging and compelling.
Belle epoque / Wauwe, Bloch, Lille National Orchestra
PENTATONE
SACD
$21.99Aug 16, 2019
Belgian clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe revives the golden glow of a bygone age on her PENTATONE debut album Belle époque, together with the Orchestre National de Lille and its music director Alexandre Bloch. The programme is built around treasures of French turn-of-the-century music such as Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie, Pierné’s Canzonetta and Widor’s Introduction et Rondo (the latter two in arrangements by Jelle Tassyns). Belle époque also offers works that display a spiritual kinship to the age, such as Brahms’s first clarinet sonata, arranged by Luciano Berio, and a world-premiere recording of Paris-based contemporary composer Manfred Trojahn (Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestre). Annelien van Wauwe is a former BBC New Generation Artist and winner of the renowned Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2018. She kickstarts an exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE with this first solo album. The Orchestre National de Lille and Alexandre Bloch release their second PENTATONE album, after their 2018 recording of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles, crowned with a Diapason d’or.
