VIP
Eddy Vanoosthuyse performs Mozart Clarinet
Concerto with the Lumen Symphonicum
Ghent, Belgium
28 April 2018
Amici Ensemble - A Legacy of Inspiration on its 30th Anniversary
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
On Friday evening, in partnership with
The Royal Conservatory, Canada’s famed, Juno-award winning Amici
Chamber Ensemble closed out its 30th concert season at the
Telus Centre for Performance and Learning, Koerner Hall, with a
program that felt as celebratory as the occasion demanded but also deeply
respectful of the life-changing events of the past week in Toronto. In the
words of RCM President
Dr. Peter Simon:
“On behalf of
everyone at The Royal Conservatory of Music, I extend my deepest condolences to
all those affected by the senseless attack earlier this week and applaud the
calm professionalism of first responders. [Tonight] in Koerner Hall, The Royal
Conservatory will honour all those who lost their lives by dedicating the
performance of the Amici Chamber Ensemble to their memories.”
Artistic Directors clarinetist Joaquin
Valdepeñas, cellist David
Hetherington and pianist Serouj
Kradjian welcomed internationally renowned Armenian-Canadian
operatic soprano Isabel
Bayrakdarian, acclaimed Israeli violinist Yehonatan
Berick, students of the
Glenn Gould School and members of the
TSO wind section in a spellbinding evening of passionate
chamber repertoire that was as eclectic as their audiences have come to expect.
The program opened with
Respighi’s Il Tramonto for Voice and String Quartet, P. 101.
The quartet consisted of Yehonatan Berick, violin 1,
Katya Poplyansky, violin 2,
Steven Dann, viola and
David Hetherington, cello. The beginning is intense, with
unison, high-pitched strings creating a feeling of furious emotion that as
quickly fades to Bayrakdarian’s rich mezzo-soprano entry. For the rest of
this exquisite vocal tone poem (based on the poetry of Shelley), there are lush,
moving harmonies, moments of undulating passion that come at the listener in
waves. The strings can be heard shimmering beneath the soaring vocal lines that
build and release tension many times. Bayrakdarian’s singing was, of course,
wonderful, and the quartet behind her was well-balanced, with each voice played
with clarity yet sensitivity to one another. The piece dissolved into a
beautiful silence at the end that the audience allowed to linger for many
seconds, and that was extraordinary.
Dohnányi’s Sextet in C Major, op. 37 followed, a work written
in 1935 that perhaps goes unnoticed in the modernist era shuffle. However,
it is a brilliantly tonal work that deserves to be heard more than it is. Scored
for two violins, cello, clarinet, French Horn and piano, a unique soundscape is
created with this instrumentation, and the musicians played with great passion
and brilliant dynamics. The initial allegro movement reminded this listener of a
Rachmaninoff piano concerto. The horn playing of Gabriel
Radford was particularly exhilarating, and with the virtuosic
piano playing of Serouj Kradjian anchoring things, the effect was often
symphonic. The Adagio 2nd movement featured lush harmonies and major chord
modulations that suddenly transitioned into a militaristic form of tone
painting. The Allegro and Finale movements that followed were playful,
dramatic, soaring music, well performed, bringing the first half to a most
satisfying conclusion.
The second half of the concert was introduced by pianist Kradjian,
who had been a member of the
Glenn Gould School Chamber Music Competition jury panel.
He noted that 20 chamber groups had initially competed, and six groups had been
selected to perform in the finals, which took place on Thursday, April 26th at
Koerner Hall. He then introduced the winning quartet - The
Fioritura String Quartet - made up of Danielle
Greene, violin 1, Hong
You, violin 2, Samuel
Choi, viola and Kimberly
Miyoung, cello. They performed Hayden’s String Quartet No. 1 in G major, op. 76, and they
were outstanding. Part of the Amici Chamber Ensemble’s mission has always been
to nurture and promote young talent, and this quartet of young musicians has a
bright future ahead of them.
The remainder of the
program was a tribute to the timeless music of Leonard Bernstein, with the Amici
String Quartet and Isabel Bayrakdarian returning to the stage to perform a most
entertaining and pleasing selection of songs. Included were “A Simple Song”
from Mass,
“A Julia de Burgos” from Songfest,
“A Little Bit in Love” from Wonderful
Town and “I Can Cook Too” from On
the Town. The latter two songs allowed Bayrakdarian to
indulge her inner Broadway showgirl, let her hair down and just have fun.
This was followed by the
Clarinet Sonata, said to be Bernstein’s “first
acknowledged composition”. The masterful Valdepeñas and Kradjian performed
the work with exuberance and sensitivity, blending seamlessly those moments of
mystery with sudden burst of energy that are typical of Bernstein’s style. As
always, Valdepeñas’ breath control and clarity of tone is other worldly.
The three Artistic Directors spoke to the audience ahead of the
final piece, reminiscing about their musical journey of the past 30
years. Valdepeñas reaffirmed their commitment through the years of promoting
young talent, while Hetherington paid homage to the ensemble’s original pianist,
Patricia Parr, who had been with them for the first 20 years and was in
attendance. Kradjian closed the address by citing friendship as the reason for
the group’s lasting success. He then quoted Bernstein, saying that “to achieve
great things, two things are needed - a plan and not quite enough time!” From
there, he introduced his wonderful new medley of West
Side Story tunes. Scored for two violins, viola,
cello, bass, flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, percussion and piano, this was a
WSS medley unlike any other that this listener had ever heard. Brilliant
in conception and spectacular in performance, Kradjian’s arrangement and this
iteration of the Amici Chamber Ensemble brought the house down, reminding us
amidst the heartache of the past week how the beauty of music and sublime
artistry of gifted musicians can uplift our collective sense of humanity.
‘In his playing, Fuchs cultivates a consummate mellowness and balance of
tone, he makes the clarinet sound like the ideal human singing voice.’ - Berliner Zeitung
Since his debut with the Berliner
Philharmoniker in February 2006, Alan Gilbert’s guest appearances have displayed
a wide repertoire spectrum, ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, to Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, to Johannes Brahms,
Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Leoš Janáček and Béla Bartók to Magnus
Lindberg and John Adams. But there is method behind what looks at first glance
like a piecemeal approach: “In this way I could try out quite different aspects
of the orchestra”, the conductor revealed.
This season, Gilbert, who held the position of music director of the New York
Philharmonic from 2009 until summer 2017, presents yet another of his musical
facets to Berlin audiences – with Thomas Adès’ Three Studies from Couperin and Claude Debussy’s
Images pour orchestre. What both pieces have in
common is that they were inspired by existing music: Adès has orchestrated three
harpsichord pieces by the French Baroque master François Couperin in a new,
original way, while in his triptych Images, Debussy created three musical landscapes
and mood pictures of England, France and Spain from folk dances and folk
melodies. The appeal of the composition lies in the fact that Debussy, with his
own iridescent musical language, created an absolutely authentic, yet at the
same atmospherically heightened vision in sound of the three nations.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, on the other hand, was inspired to write one of his
most beautiful concertos not by pre-existing music, but by the mesmerising
playing of an instrumental virtuoso: the Clarinet Concerto in A major, which
captivates listeners by its clarity of form, its intimate, song-like themes and
its playful brilliance. Mozart wrote the concerto for his friend Anton Stadler,
whose command of the then still relatively new instrument was second to none: as
one critic enthusiastically wrote, “I have never heard the like of what you
contrived with your instrument. I would not have thought that a clarinet could
imitate the human voice so deceptively as you imitate it. Your instrument is so
soft, so delicate in tone that no-one who has a heart can resist it.”
The same can also be said of the soloist of this
programme: Wenzel Fuchs, principal clarinet of the Berliner Philharmoniker since
1993, received his training in Vienna and has the softness and flexibility of
tone which make his playing comparable to the expressive possibilities of the
human voice.
Two Video playbacks including Interview and Digital Concert Hall Trailer
of Concert:
Ein alter
Musikerwitz geht so: „Fragt ein Tourist, der sich auf dem Weg
zum Konzert verlaufen hat, einen Passanten: ‚Wie komme ich zu
den Berliner Philharmonikern?‘. Der antwortet: ‚Üben, üben,
üben!‘“. Dass jedes einzelne Mitglied der
Berliner Philharmoniker großartige solistische Qualitäten
besitzt, ist weithin bekannt. Umso erstaunlicher, dass es in
dieser elitären Riege der Talentverwöhnten noch eine „Crème de
la Crème“ gibt.
Der aus Innsbruck stammende Soloklarinettist der Berliner
Philharmoniker,
Wenzel Fuchs, ist eine solche Ausnahme von der Ausnahme.
Dies stellte er mit seiner hinreißend klangschönen
Interpretation des
Klarinettenkonzerts in A-Dur, KV 622 von Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart unter Beweis. Wie bei jedem Instrument gibt es auch bei
der Klarinette nicht nur ein Klangideal, denn schließlich
erfordern unterschiedliche Epochen oder gar unterschiedliche
musikalische Genres jeweils ihre Ausdrucksmittel. Sieht man von
experimentellen Kompositionen ab, so gibt es jedoch eine
ureigene Klangqualität eines jeden Instruments, die sich
Komponisten mehr oder weniger gekonnt zu eigen machen können.
Mozart vermochte dies in bis heute unerreichter Art und Weise.
Sein einziges Klarinettenkonzert widmete er dem Mitglied der
Kaiserlichen Hofkapelle zu Wien, Anton Stadler, von dem ein
begeisterter Kritiker einmal geschrieben hatte: »Hätt’s nicht
gedacht, dass ein Klarinet menschliche Stimme so täuschend
nachahmen könnte, als du sie nachahmst. Hat doch dein Instrument
einen Ton so weich, so lieblich, dass ihm niemand widerstehn
kann, der ein Herz hat.«
So konnte auch
niemand dem Klangzauber Wenzel Fuchs‘ widerstehen, bei dem es
oftmals schien, als würde er nicht nur Töne in den Zuschauerraum
tragen, sondern die Luft so lange zart streicheln, bis der
samtweiche Klarinettenton als feiner Funke entzündet sich
unaufhaltsam den Weg in die Ohren und Herzen der Zuhörer bahnte
– nur um im nächsten Moment wieder mit der Stille zu
verschmelzen. Aber auch geschmackvolle Rubati, wohldosierte
Akzente und abwechslungsreiche Phrasierungen gehören zum
interpretatorischen Werkzeugkasten des Österreichers, der schon
seit 1993 bei den Philharmonikern seinen Dienst tut. Daneben hat
er vielfältige Engagements auch als Dozent im In- und Ausland.
Ebenfalls
international gefragt ist
Alan Gilbert, der das Dirigat dieses exquisiten
Konzertabends innehatte. Erfreulicherweise wird er ab Sommer
2019 zunächst für fünf Jahre den Posten des Chefdirigenten des
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchesters übernehmen. Vergleicht man ihn
heute mit seinem Antrittskonzert beim New York Philharmonic
Orchestra im Jahre 2009, dann hat sich zu seiner immer schon
perfektionistischen Übersetzung der Partitur in präzise
gestische Signale noch eine weitere für einen derart körperlich
präsenten Menschen erstaunliche und für den Zuschauer höchst
erfreuliche Eigenschaft gesellt: Eleganz.
Diese Eleganz
kam gleich zu Beginn des Konzerts den originellen
Three Studies from Couperin (2006) des britischen
Komponisten Thomas Adès zugute. Adès bearbeitet hier auf höchst
delikate Weise Kompositionsvorlagen des Barockcembalisten
François Couperin. Er lässt die Couperin-Vorlagen in Melodik,
Tonart, Harmonik und Taktzahl zwar unverändert, verfremdet die
Stücke allerdings mithilfe der ungewöhnlichen Orchestrierung: Zu
einem Kammerorchester gesellen sich Marimba, Basstrommel,
Schlagzeug und Pauken. Insbesondere das Marimbaphon und die
tiefen Holzbläser und Streicher gaben den Stücken eine
klangliche Färbung, als hätte jemand die Philharmonie randvoll
mit Wasser gefüllt. Dank des galanten Dirigats Alain Gilberts
und der hochkonzentrierten Arbeit der Philharmoniker gereichte
auch diese klangmagische Zeitreise zur Perfektion.
In der zweiten
Konzerthälfte zeichnete dann ein sichtlich und hörbar
wohlgestimmtes Philharmonisches Orchester die
Images pour orchestre von Claude Debussy in die vibrierende
Luft des Konzertsaals. Diese Stücke des französischen Tonmalers
sind musikalische Beschreibungen kleiner Szenen: Lichter
spiegeln sich im Wasser, von ferne klingen Glocken und der Mond
sinkt herab. Besonders die spanische Reminiszenz „Ibéria“ mit
ihren packenden Takt- und Tempowechseln und dem
Kastagnetten-getriebenen Bolero-Rhythmus im ersten Abschnitt
berauschte Publikum und Musiker gleichermaßen. Als dann langsam
und träumerisch die Nacht mit ihren berückenden Düften Einzug
hielt und Harfen, Oboen und Klarinetten einen Zauberteppich aus
chromatisch verschobenen Akkorden webten, da war die adäquate
Atmosphäre geschaffen für die fabelhaften Oboensoli, die mit
Albrecht Mayer ein weiterer dieser Ausnahmekünstler anstimmte.
Die „Rondes de printemps“ beendeten leichtfüßig und tänzerisch
diesen frühlingsfröhlichen Konzertgenuss.
Shuyan Jin began her clarinet studies in China when she was 8 years old.
In 2012, she won first place in the Yangji International Clarinet Competition.
Following that, she attended the Central University of Nationalities School of
Music in Beijing, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree. During her
undergraduate studies, she went to Drake University in Iowa as an exchange
student for one year, where she won the Drake University Honors Competition. In
2016, Shuyan began studies at Longy School of Music of Bard College in the
Graduate Performance Diploma program, where she won Honorable Mention in the
school's concerto competition. Shuyan Jin has participated in masterclasses with
Matthias Mueller, Philippe Cuper, Jonathan Cohler, and Pierre Genisson, among
others. As an orchestral clarinetist, she has performed with Minzu Minority
Philharmonie, the Minzu University Wind Symphony, and the New Philharmonia
Orchestra. In the Fall of 2018, she will begin pursuing her Master's degree at
the Longy School of Music.
A native of Duncanville, Texas,
Mexican-American clarinetist Elias Rodriguez
made his national solo debut in his fifth year of clarinet studies, at the
age of 16, after performing on a live broadcast of NPR’s From the Top.
Currently, he is a member of The Orchestra Now,
a pre-professional orchestra comprised of graduate musicians from around the
world. He is a recipient of a three year full-tuition scholarship to Bard
College, where he will complete a Master’s Degree in Curatorial, Critical
and Performance Studies in May 2018. He has been invited to perform in
international music festivals throughout North America and Europe, including
the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, The Banff Centre, Le Domaine Forget,
L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, YOA Orchestra of the Americas, the Bard
Music Festival, and the Grafanegg Festival in Vienna, Austria. He won first
prize in The Orchestra Now’s first ever concerto competition, performing
Carl Maria von Weber’s 1st Clarinet Concerto for a live and radio audience
on WMHT New York. He can be heard on the Hyperion Records label,
accompanying Australian pianist Piers Lane as a member of The Orchestra Now.
Elias has a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Baylor University and
a Master’s Degree in Clarinet Performance from The University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor. Elias is a recipient of the 2018 Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship
and was awarded an artist residency in Paris, France. He will attend
L’Ècole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot to study under Patrick
Messina. Elias is a fluent English, Spanish, and French speaker.
Harold Wright, for which this Merit Competition is named, was born in
Wayne, Pennsylvania and began playing the clarinet at age twelve. He attended
the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied clarinet with the Philadelphia
Orchestra's principal clarinetist, Ralph McLane, and chamber music with that
orchestra's principal oboist, Marcel Tabuteau.
Upon graduating from Curtis, Mr. Wright joined the Houston Symphony and a year
later became principal clarinetist of the Dallas Symphony. For many summers he
participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and the Casals Festival Orchestra
and was a frequent guest artist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Concerts, the
Mostly Mozart Festival, and the chamber music concerts at the 92nd Street "Y" in
New York. He also appeared frequently with such leading string quartets as the
Budapest, Guarneri, Vermeer, and Juilliard. In 1970 he joined the Boston
Symphony Orchestra as principal clarinet and taught at New England Conservatory,
Boston University, and the Tanglewood Music Center until his untimely death in
August 1993. He has left a legacy of memorable recordings.
21 April 2018
WA Concert Series with VIP
Charles Neidich
and Friends, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, performing with Period Instruments
the Schubert Octet D803 - Tenri Cultural Center
New York City USA
The Smithsonian Chamber Players
Vera
Beths and Cynthia
Roberts - violins Steven
Dann - viola Kenneth
Slowik - cello Anthony
Manzo - bass
Charles
Neidich - clarinet Andrew
Schwartz - bassoon
William
Purvis - horn
Wa Concert Series presents Schubert Masterworks in Review
Clarinetist Charles Neidich impeccably curates a gem of a concert series called
Wa (circle, harmony, completeness) at New York’s
Tenri Cultural center. Not all of the important musical events in a city as rich
in them as New York take place in the “big” venues. Each Wa concert also comes
with hand-crafted snacks before the concert and dinner with wine after, made by
Mr. Neidich’s wife Ayako Oshima ,herself an accomplished clarinetist. On this
occasion, Mr. Neidich enlisted the services of one of the nation’s eminent
chamber groups: the Smithsonian Chamber Players, to perform a single masterwork:
Schubert’s epic-sized Octet in F major, D. 803.
Commissioned by clarinetist Ferdinand Troyer, the Octet was composed in March
1824. The work was premiered at Archduke Rudolf’s home by many of the same
musicians who played Beethoven’s Septet. Schubert goes Beethoven one better by
adding an additional violin to the instrument group. The Octet’s length was
noticed even in 1824; it runs at least one hour depending on repeats, and led
Stravinsky (as related in the very complete oral program note by cellist Kenneth
Slowik) to say that he “didn’t mind if he occasionally fell asleep during a work
by Schubert, since I know I am waking up in Paradise.” After all, isn’t
listening to an hour of Schubert better than updating your Instagram feed?
These players gave a triumphant reading of the piece, full of sensitive detail
and shaping, with full emotional commitment and harmonic direction. In the case
of the Octet, as with most of Schubert, remote keys are visited with such
rapidity and fluidity that it can all pass by too easily unless the performers
make real events from them.
I’m tempted to say: “There are only two kinds of clarinetists: Charles Neidich,
and everyone else.” Perhaps this is unfair to the many great players out there,
but every time I’ve heard Mr. Neidich this season, I come away with the same
stunned revelation of superb lyricism coupled with supernatural breath control.
He possesses that nearly untranslatable German quality of Innigkeit (inwardness, combined with emotional
intensity). He also has a great deal of wa.
Mr.
Neidich’s assembled team plays period instruments (or faithful modern copies),
and this immediately solves any vexing problems of balance, leaving the way open
for the players to focus on inspiration, which they possess in abundance.
Particularly enjoyable were the contributions of Anthony Manzo, double bass,
whose visual involvement with the group was a delight, and bassoonist Andrew
Schwartz, whose tone was so mellow I often had to glance around the group to
make sure it was coming from him. All played with the highest possible level of
musicianship. For an “occasional” work, this score abounds in tricky material,
and no player is spared from great technical challenges, all of which have to
sound effortless. Vera Beths and Cynthia Roberts handled the violin parts
beautifully, and violist Steven Dann had the most delightful pizzicati. Cellist Slowik played with immense
lyricism and William Purvis handled the peril-prone valveless horn with his
customary aplomb. Ultimately it was the magic created by Mr. Neidich that ruled
and was especially heartbreaking in the second movement, appropriate since the
work was commissioned by a clarinetist.
At the
beginning of the last movement, we hear what Alfred Brendel calls “the trembling
of the syphilitic” dramatized by the ensemble, a window into Schubert’s lifelong
“Todesahnung”
(presentiment of death), especially poignant since he was just re-entering
musical and social life after a spurious mercury treatment for his syphilis. The
melodic fragment heard over the tremolo strongly resembles one of Schubert’s
Schiller settings: Die Götter Griechenlands (The Greek Gods, 1819),
which opens with the line “Schöne Welt, wo bist Du?” (Beautiful world, where art
Thou?), the entire Romantic period summed up in one line. The entire “trembling”
episode then serves merely as the introduction to a foot-stomping folk-like
song/dance that had numerous audience members vainly resisting to tap their
feet.
Thunderous applause from a standing audience Saturday evening
responded to the final sounds of this season’s Music for Peace concert series at
Harvard Epworth Church. Chamber Music Boston’s programming and superb playing
married to an important cause at the 1890s Richardson Romanesque Church as
cerulean light filled the altar window as the sun set.
Massachusetts Peace Action executive director Cole Harrison welcomed us by
describing the organization, which aims “to foster a more just and peaceful US
foreign policy,” and series music director and pianist Victor Rosenbaum provided
an amuse bouche. The concert itself began with three
of Max Bruch’s Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Cello (or Viola) and Piano (the first,
second and sixth—Andante, Allegro con moto, and Nachtgesang: Andante con moto). Bruch wrote these
late in his life (1908, age 70), for his son, who was a superb clarinetist; some
find the works to be overly autumnal, although the three featured were anything
but. The highly expressive clarinetist Jonathan Cohler collaborates and records
frequently with poetic pianist, Rasa Vitkauskaite; cellist Sebastian Bäverstam
brought his unique sensitivity and spirit.
Cohler introduced Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat Major, Opus 11 (1798), written in
an era of piano duels in which the aristocracy doted on improvisations; in this
case, each nobleman sponsored a musician. Cohler reminded the audience of the
famous contest in which Beethoven’s inspirationally pointed improvisations
bested Daniel Steibelt, who left in a huff and never returned to Vienna. The
B-flat trio may be played with clarinet in lieu of violin (as this evening), and
bassoon may substitute for cello (not this evening). The third movement features
theme and nine variations based on the popular melody “Pria ch’io l’impegno.”
Vitkauskaite’s wonderfully melodic touch anchored the trio, while Cohler and
Bäverstam projected verve and warmth.
The second part of the program involved pre-concert heroics, fitting for the
ironic references to war in both Stravinsky’s Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat and Bartók’s Contrasts. The ensemble’s violinist, Solomiya
Ivakhiv, had to withdraw from the program a week before the performance, and
finding a replacement to play the difficult pieces initially appeared hopeless
in this busy concert season. Fortunately, the eminent Boston area violinist
James Buswell, who was in South America and scheduled to return on the concert
date, happily agreed within minutes of getting an email about the predicament.
He landed at Logan in the early afternoon, rehearsed right away and, veteran
artist that he is, dispatched the works with aplomb and panache.
L’Histoire
du Soldat, based on the Russian folktale Runaway Soldier and the Devil, may be performed
with various combinations of instruments (a septet or fewer) and with and
without three actors and one to three dancers. This evening Cohler, Buswell, and
Vitkauskaite executed the shifting time signatures and musical ironies to
perfectly match the story.
Written in the period before World War II, Bartók’s
Contrasts premiered in its first version in 1939
at Carnegie Hall, the first and last movements, and then in 1940, the composer
added the middle movement for himself to play along with Josef Szigeti and Benny
Goodman. Cohler, Buswell, and Vitkauskaite brought great vitality in their
reprise of the work. The first movement Recruiting Dance (Verbunkos) conjures
conscription and marching with a clarinet cadenza, which Cohler deftly
delivered. The added second movement, Pihenö (or Relaxation), provided a quiet
but latently explosive interlude, not really relaxation. The final movement,
Sebes (Fast Dance) is a tour de force involving scordatura, which Buswell
approached by deploying a second violin with the E string lowered and the G
string raised by a semitone.
Next year’s
series should go on your “to do” list.
15 - 21 April 2018
With VIP Alexander Fiterstein
with an incredible week in Minsk, Belarus (where I lived until I was 2 years
old). I was fortunate to play both Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Weber’s Alla
Polacca and give a masterclass
(на русском) at the Belarusian State Academy of Music -
Minsk, Belarus
Incredible week in Minsk (where I lived until I was 2 years old). I was
fortunate to play both Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Weber’s Alla Polacca and
give a masterclass
(на русском) at the Belarusian State Academy of Music. My parents joined me for
the week and relatives I have not seen in decades were so excited to attend the
concerts. I am grateful to Distinguished Clarinet Professor Владимир Скороходов
who invited me to Minsk and to Andrei Kavalinski who together with the State
Academy started the “First International Academy of Orchestral Art”. This is a
great project/festival that will surely have a big impact on the next generation
of musicians. Congratulations also to Yevgeny Yehudin and Sergijus Kirsenka who
sounded fantastic. Bolshoye Spasiba!
21 April 2018
University of Delaware Clarinet Day - Dr Christopher Nichols, Director
Newcastle, Delaware USA
The 5th annual Delaware Clarinet Day took place on Saturday, April 21, 2018.
This daylong educational outreach event, hosted by Dr. Christopher Nichols
and the University of Delaware Clarinet Studio, included clinics,
masterclasses, recitals and festival clarinet choir for all participants.
B&B Music and Sound, D’Addario Woodwinds and Rice Clarinet Works were
present with tables of accessories, giveways and Buffet Clarinets for
participants to trial.
The University of Delaware Clarinet Ensemble opened the day’s events with a
short recital of orchestral transcriptions by Elgar and Smetana.
Participants were then guided through a session entitled “Yoga for
Clarinetists” by Michelle Kiec, dean of the college of visual and performing
arts at Kutztown University. Wes Rice of Rice Clarinet Works rounded out the
morning with a clinic on essential maintenance topics for all clarinetists.
After a lunch break, this year’s
featured recital and masterclass were given by Jeremy Reynolds, associate
professor of clarinet at University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, with
Julie Nishimura, faculty collaborative pianist at the University of
Delaware. Reynolds and Nishimura collaborated for a stunning recital of
works by Devienne, Szalowski, Persichetti and Poulenc. A masterclass with
three University of Delaware students immediately followed.
The last session of the day was presented by Dr. Kate Young, winner of the
2015 International Clarinet Association’s Research Competition. Dr. Young’s
research centers around the influence of thumbrest position on clarinet
performance, which was the subject of her doctoral dissertation at Louisiana
State University.
Throughout the day, participants, ranging in age from 5th
grade to retired, enjoyed festival choir rehearsals. The day conclude with a
public concert of works by Vaughan Williams, Schubert, Mendelssohn and
Villa-Lobos. The UD Clarinet Studio thanks Buffet Crampon USA and the UD
Community Music School for their generous support of Delaware Clarinet Day
2018.
21 April 2018
2018 MTSU High School Honors Clarinet Choir Weekend
-
Dr. Todd Waldecker,
Director with Vandoren Regional Artist Jenny Maclay as Soloist
Just finished a great weekend with the 2018 MTSU High School Honors Clarinet
Choir. What a fantastic group of clarinetists from across Tennessee! This short
video features A Little Night Music, a Bullfighter Anthem, a festive Klezmer
selection, and excerpts from Beauty and the Beast played to video clips compiled
and conducted by Michaela Cundari, MTSU's Clarinet Graduate Assistant. Special
thanks to all the folks who made the day possible. Long live Clarinet Choirs!
It was a joy to have Vandoren Regional Artist (and MTSU Honor Clarinet
Choir Alum!),
Jenny Maclay, visit us and present a masterclass, reed lecture, and stellar solo
performance with the MTSU Clarinet Choir. Check out her website at http://jennyclarinet.com/
13 April 2018
Chicago Symphony's John Bruce Yeh Headlines Album Of Clarinet Works
John Bruce Yeh, the ChicagoSymphony
Orchestra's long-serving assistant
principal clarinet and solo E-flat
clarinet, takes center stage on Liquid
Melancholy: Clarinet Works of James M
Stephenson, a new album of clarinet
showpieces for orchestra, chamber
ensemble, and clarinet-piano duo by the
prolific, award-winning American
composer (Cedille Records CDR 90000
176).
World-premiere recordings on the
album, available April 13, 2018, include
the title work, Liquid
Melancholy, a concerto for clarinet and
orchestra; the chamber ensemble piece
Last Chants; and two works for clarinet
and piano, Fantasie and the Sonata for
Clarinet and Piano.
The concerto Liquid
Melancholy (2011) explores the
instrument's fluid lyricism and vast
tonal and expressive range. In the liner
notes, Stephenson says he'd been
attracted to the phrase "liquid
melancholy" from Ray Bradbury's
Fahrenheit 451 and sought a chance to
use it as a title. He found that
opportunity in his first major work for
clarinet, Liquid
Melancholy, co-commissioned by three
American youth orchestras. "I've always
been fascinated by the clarinet's
ability to play such smooth and fluid
lines at all dynamic levels. This
'liquidity' is something I wanted to
highlight in this concerto." The newer
version heard on the recording is what
Stephenson calls the "composer-preferred
score," commissioned by the Lake Forest
Symphony, with orchestration akin to
Anton Bruckner's Symphony
No. 4.
This performance marks the
commercial recording debut of the Lake
Forest Symphony, a critically-acclaimed,
Chicago-area professional ensemble
founded more than 60 years ago. Its
music director and conductor, Vladimir
Kulenovic, earned the 2015 Sir Georg
Soli conducting award and was named that
year's "Chicagoan of the Year in
Classical Music" by the Chicago
Tribune.
Clarinetist Yeh founded the
Grammy Award-winning Chicago Pro
Musica chamber group in 1979. The
ensemble, winner of the 1985 Grammy for
Best New Classical Artist and comprised
almost entirely of ChicagoSymphony
Orchestra members, joins him in two
works. Colors (1997), for the novel
palette of clarinet, oboe, and string
quartet, evokes an angry red, bluesy
blue, rustic green, and brilliant white.
Guest artist is Alex Klein, the CSO's
former principal oboe. Scored for
clarinet, piano, and strings,
Stephenson's whimsically named Last
Chants (2015) channels ancient, exotic
sounds.
On a more intimate scale are the
three works for clarinet and piano
alone, performed with Patrick Godon, who
regularly appears with the ChicagoSymphony
Orchestra as principal keyboardist and
served in that role on the CSO's 2017
European tour.
Yeh calls Étude Caprice (1997)
"a two-minute sprint that's literally
breathtaking for the clarinetist and a
thrill for the listener." Fantasie
(2005) is a lyrical extravaganza of
waltzes, scherzos, and dances.
Originally written for trumpet, the
clarinet version is dedicated to Yeh,
who Stephenson says "demonstrates a true
joy and love for music-making at every
occasion."
The four-movement Sonata for
Clarinet and Piano (2015), the longest
work on the album, is also dedicated to
Yeh, who gave its concert premiere. The
sonata reflects Stephenson's "personal
bent toward jazz-inflected harmonies."
While essentially a standard
three-movement (slow-fast-slow) sonata,
it includes an optional interior
movement, "Interlude, Jam Bourrée," for
clarinetists to play on E-flat clarinet.
The composer says it was written as a
tribute to Yeh's "exemplary E-flat
clarinet playing, which I have so often
witnessed at CSO concerts."<
Recording Team
Liquid Melancholy was produced by James Ginsburg and
engineered by Bill Maylone and Mary Mazurek (for the concerto
Liquid Melancholy) May 21, 2017, at the
James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts at the College of Lake
County, Lake Forest, Ill. (Liquid Melancholy); and July 13-15, 2017,
at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of
Chicago (chamber works).
John Bruce Yeh
John Bruce Yeh is the longest-serving clarinetist in
Chicago
Symphony Orchestra history. At the invitation of music director
Sir Georg Solti, Yeh joined the CSO in 1977, at age 19, as
clarinetist and solo bass clarinetist. He's currently the
orchestra's assistant principal and solo E-flat clarinet. He served
as the CSO's acting principal clarinet from 2008-2011 and has also
performed as guest principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the
Seoul Philharmonic. A prize winner at both the 1982 Munich
International Music Competition and 1985 Naumburg Clarinet
Competition in New York, Yeh is the dedicatee of new works for
clarinet by numerous composers, ranging from Ralph Shapey to John
Williams.
James M. Stephenson
Winner of the National Band Association's 2017 William D. Revelli
Composition Contest for his
Symphony No. 2 ("Voices"), James M. Stephenson has been praised
by the Boston Herald for his "straightforward, unabashedly beautiful
sounds." His catalog includes concertos and sonatas for nearly every
instrument. Most of these works came through commissions by and for
major symphony orchestra principal players in Chicago, Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Oregon,
Milwaukee, and Dallas, among others. His extensive catalog can be
heard on more than 30 CDs. Among his major new commissions is a Bass
Trombone Concerto, a
Chicago
Symphony Orchestra Commission slated to receive its world
premiere June 13, 2019, with CSO trombonist Charles Vernon as
soloist and music director Riccardo Muti on the podium. Stephenson's
website is
composerjim.com.
Cedille Records
Launched in November 1989, Grammy Award-winning Cedille Records
(pronounced say-DEE) is dedicated to showcasing and promoting the
most noteworthy classical artists in and from the
Chicago area.
The audiophile-oriented label releases every new album in multiple
formats: physical CD; 96 kHz, 24-bit, studio-quality FLAC download;
and 320 Kbps MP3 download.
An independent nonprofit enterprise, Cedille Records is the label of
Cedille Chicago, NFP. Sales of physical CDs and digital downloads
and streams cover only a small percentage of the label's costs.
Tax-deductible donations from individual music-lovers and grants
from charitable organizations account for most of its revenue.
Headquarters are at 1205 W. Balmoral Ave., Chicago, IL 60640; call
(773) 989-2515; email: info@cedillerecords.org. Website:
cedillerecords.org.
Cedille Records is distributed in the Western Hemisphere by Naxos of
America and its distribution partners, by Select Music in the U.K.,
and by other independent distributors in the Naxos network in
classical music markets around the world.
Bernstein and Brahms – Celebrating 100 Years of Leonard Bernstein – Brahms
Clarinet Trio and other works by Leonard Bernstein, with special guest,
clarinetist Senior VIP
Stanley Drucker.
Pre-concert Q & A with Stanley Drucker: his years in the Philharmonic with
Bernstein
8 April 2018
VIP
Charles Neidich
performs with the Parker String Quartet at the Howland Music Circle
with a rediscovered Clarinet Quintet by Russian composer Aleksandr Lokshin -
Quintet for Clarinet
and String Quartet - 8 April 2018
