Elliott Carter’s two major string/piano duos – the Cello Sonata of 1948 and the 1974 Duo for violin and piano – here balance six of the short works for one, two or three players, tributes and playful arabesques, which have so unexpectedly thronged his latest decade of creativity. The result is an invaluable, kaleidoscopic introduction to one of the liveliest instrumental minds of our time. Fred Sherry and Charles Wuorinen fluently dispatch the four-movement Cello Sonata, the earliest and apparently most ‘traditional’ work in the collection. Yet this is where Carter first refined his ideas of metrical modulation, conflict and cross-purpose between players: mainstream Americana turning Cubist and many-dimensional. It’s also eloquent, even gabby, and volatile in the sense of forever aspiring to flight. In the single-movement, mosaic-like Duo the torrential discourse continues without any reference to traditional tonality or structure, but Rolf Schulte and Martin Goldray here turn in a far more amiable and beguiling version of this ragged, mercurial work than did Robert Mann and Christopher Oldfather two years ago on Sony. The short pieces, from the guitar study Changes (1983) to last year’s Gra for clarinet in homage to Lutoslawski, aren’t exactly miniatures, but relaxed fantasies of tone colour and technique: ‘tennis matches for the imagination’ is the striking image in David Schiff’s liner notes. Amiably and insistently they test the virtuosity of the individual instrumentalists, and the members of the Group for Contemporary Music rise joyfully to their challenges in nicely realistic, not over-bright sound.

-- Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine

David Shifrin, clarinet; Chamber Music Northwest. Delos DE 3066 [Quintet].

Despite its name, Chamber Music Northwest is an assembly of New York regulars. They offer a subdued rather than searing account of the Clarinet Quintet, with leisurely tempos and a feeling more of point-to-point navigation through the score than of a single, seamless utterance. The ensemble is excellent, with sisters Ani and Ida Kavafian quite remarkably well matched on violin, their unisons, octaves and thirds uncannily together. The fluid, singing quality of Shifrin’s playing is admirable, and he shows an interpretive restraint in keeping with his view that the clarinet part should not be treated as a solo, but as one strand among five. The recording, made in March 1989, is intimate and highly satisfying. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.

Classical Music