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 |  |  | | | | Track Listings | | | Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (Speck-1993) | | | 1 I. Andante con moto; espressivo Interlude; Adagietto teneramente (attacca) | 8:20 | | 2 II. Allegro; affrettando | 9:40 | | Concerto for B-flat Clarinet and Orchestra (Stewart-1993) | | | 3 I. Lento; Allegretto | 6:19 | | 4 II. Andante | 5:47 | | 5 III. Allegretto | 5:10 | | 6 Morning Calls (Beerman-1993) | 6:19 | | Three of a Kind (Phillips-1993) | | | 7 I. Molto rubato | 8:05 | | 8 II. Moderato | 8:32 | | 9 III. Brisk, steady tempo | 3:42 | | Total time: | 62:28 |
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| | | | | | Richard Stoltzman - Concertos for Clarinet and Orchestra | | | Our Price: $9.95  | | | | Item Number: MMC2078 | | Audio Format: DDD | | Genres: Concerto\Featured Soloist | | | | Description | | Excerpts from the Liner Notes (by Peter Bates)
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
[Frederick Speck] has been clearly influenced by vernacular music, with his Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra showing an affinity for late-fifties third-stream jazz.
This concerto is a consistently inventive work that presents the best of its medium. While some concertos relegate the orchestra to a background role and spotlight the soloist, Speck treats the orchestra as an equal partner, much like Bartók does in his Concerto for Orchestra. “The opening woodwind gesture creates a sound world for the clarinet,” says Speck, “but as the clarinet becomes impassioned, the orchestra gets lifted into a response with it.”
Concerto for Bb Clarinet and Orchestra
Frank Graham Stewart is no stranger to popular jazz styles. When barely out of his teens, he played clarinet with Red Nichols and the Five Pennies, a Chicago jazz combo prior to the bebop era. Although he loved the music of Art Tatum and Louis Armstrong, he did not incorporate jazz elements into his early compositions. Finding more in common with the neoromantics than with the proponents of the 12-tone method, he began concentrating on ways to enhance rhythm. “I loved Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, but felt if I changed my time signatures as often as he did, my pieces would turn into a conductor’s nightmare.” So Stewart decided to experiment with new styles of rhythm, adapted from jazz syncopations, Latin American dual rhythms, and Native American polyrhythms. He also wanted to incorporate humor in his work.
“Sometimes I think music is a little too deadly serious,” says Stewart. In his Concerto for B-flat Clarinet and Orchestra, he succeeds in speeding past that roadblock.
Morning Calls
[Burton Beerman] composed “Morning Calls” as the latest work in a series that also included Night Calls. “I lost my father when I was nineteen,” says Beerman, “and didn’t know how much it had affected me until years later.” Night Calls was such a death-obsessed work that he decided to put away his dark brooding side and create Morning Calls (originally entitled Mourning Calls), a wrestling match between despair and affirmation that begins at the opening bars. For Beerman, musical conditions are also human conditions. Regarding the compelling title, he says: “Morning Calls is the call to life, setting aside the long period of mourning.”
Three of a Kind
Mark Phillips began his composing career in the seventies writing modernist pieces in the tradition of, Bartók, Stravinsky, Varèse, Penderecki, and Ligeti. These atonal compositions featured highly dissonant chords and disjunct melodic lines. “They didn’t have a hint of a backbeat,” says Phillips. Then in 1988 he won the Barlow International Competition with his orchestral piece “Turning,” which marked his turning away from a more restrictive style and toward a synthesis comprised of jazz, blues, and classical elements. “It’s not crossover, it’s not third stream; perhaps it’s some kind of postmodern hybrid.”
The same can be said for “Three of a Kind”, a triple concerto for clarinet, piano, and percussion. He began composing it inspired by George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Artie Shaw’s Clarinet Concerto, pioneering works of symphonic jazz.
Throughout Three of a Kind, there is an overriding sense of structure. Says Phillips: “It’s like when the late Andy Kaufman did comic bits in a made-up language. Everyone got the punchlines. I want my music to be so clear that people will get the punchlines even if they don’t always comprehend all the intricacies of my musical language.” |
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