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 |  |  | | | | Track Listings | | | Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (Nytch) | |  | 1 I. Animato | 6:12 | | 2 II. Mesto | 7:43 | | 3 III. Volando | 4:05 | | Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (Brouwer) | | | 4 I. Prelude | 4:26 | | 5 II. Vivace Ritmico | 5:38 | | Culinary Concerto for Clarinet (Nelson) | | | 6 I. Brothy Frothy | 6:40 | | 7 II. Sweet and Sour | 3:17 | | 8 III. Piquant | 4:49 | | 9 IV. Presto Zesto | 6:10 | | 10 Going Home (McKinley) | 12:11 | | Total time: | 61:41 |
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| | | | | | Richard Stoltzman and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra | | | Our Price: $9.95  | | | | Item Number: MMC2080 | | Audio Format: HDCD | | Genres: Classical\Featured Soloist | | | | Description | | *THIS RELEASE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AS A DIGITAL ALBUM ONLY*
Digital album release due April 8, 2008 through iTunes, Amazonmp3.com, eMusic, and many more.
Excerpts from the Liner Notes (by Alexander Carpenter)
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Typical of the concerto genre, Nytch’s work is cast in three movements; the piece also follows concerto style with its arrangement of movements in the order of fast-slow-fast. Rapid, rhythmic leaps from the solo clarinet begin the first movement of the concerto, which features thick, rich orchestral textures and a dialogue between tutti and soloist. The leaping, playfully disjunct melodic figures from the opening measures return frequently throughout the first movement, interspersed between more lyrical passages.
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Brouwer’s relatively short concerto is in two movements, with a strongly dualistic character. From the quiet, almost elegiac opening measures of the first movement, Prelude, complete with bells, Margaret Brouwer’s concerto quickly builds in intensity, but it is a restrained intensity: dark strings underlie an expressive, but often subdued solo clarinet. It soon becomes apparent that the seemingly reserved and gentle clarinet passages belie that fact that the instrument is, at times either being pushed to the top of its range or‹with its bent, slurred, and overblown notes‹to the limits of its expressive capabilities.
Culinary Concerto for Clarinet
Nelson’s Culinary Concerto for Clarinet is cast in four movements. The opening movement, "Brothy Frothy," begins with an enormous orchestral build-up - the layering of a thunderous atonal chord - before the clarinet is introduced. The clarinet is not used as a traditional solo instrument, nor is the orchestra used as mere accompaniment: the soloist is not simply playing virtuosic music against orchestral support, but rather immediately joins the overall texture, floating in and out of focus.
Going Home
The most remarkable feature of this piece - a kind of single-movement concerto for piano and clarinet, but a decidedly untraditional one - is the rapid shifting between musical genres: the work begins as a large-scale orchestral work, but soon metamorphoses into a jazz-flavored piece, complete with solos for both piano and clarinet. Both solo instruments shift effortlessly between idioms, as quasi-improvised wailing clarinet melodies and bluesy bass-runs in the piano suddenly give way to more controlled, conventional orchestral textures and melodies, which then soon blend back again into jazzy, soloistic passages. The full range and expressive possibilities of each instrument are explored in this hybrid work:… |
| | | | | | | Reviews | | … This is music that wants and needs to be heard.”
Jeffrey Nytch's concerto is the most conventional of the lot, at least in terms of form. In the first movement, agile material - the soloist leaps from note to note like a demented coloratura soprano - alternates with slower-moving melodies. Although the mood is friendly, the music maintains its intensity.
The concerto by Margaret Brouwer resembles some of Witold Lutoslawski's mature works in the way that the first movement prepares the way for the second. Brouwer, like the late Polish master, also is eager to explore unusual sounds and playing techniques. The Prelude, mysterious and disquieting, pushes the soloist to his limits.
[Nelson’s] music is panoramic and attractive, and, like Brouwer's concerto, not shy about stirring things up. The relationship between the soloist and the orchestra is more cooperative here, however.
William Thomas McKinley's Going Home has nothing to do with the "New World" Symphony, contrary to my first suspicion. Instead, the idea of "going home" is treated more abstractly. This is a double concerto of sorts for clarinet, piano, and orchestra. There is one movement, but many juxtapositions of style, mood, and texture. The soloists seem to be trying on different persona - some of them gushingly Romantic, others wryly jazzy--until they reach an agreement just to be themselves.
...[Stoltzman] "sells" these concertos expertly. ...Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra play with commitment, as if they were truly interested in these four works. (As well they should.)
The engineering is the best I've heard from MMC Recordings, and top-of-the-line in any event…
FANFARE
Raymond Tuttle |
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