Search - Francis Poulenc, Bruno Maderna, Joachim Krebs :: Clarinet Counterpoints

If you love the clarinet, this is for you

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 12/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is just-about a once-in-a-lifetime collection of great clarinet ensemble pieces. And the selections here Smeyers went far a field to find pieces hardly ever heard, and I don't know why.Poulenc had a curious creativity,primarily piano solo was his focus,if he couldn't play it(and Poulenc had large hands) it couldn't be played. Yet he felt he needed to get out of the quagmire of piano voicings,so he did write some duets and trios. There is a wonderful Brass Trio as well as this duo for two clarinets. And in this piece you will find the Poulenc we know, with beautiful lyrical passages,jazzy gesturing, and nice use of registers the low dark schalamo to the upper teeth=biting ones. Hespos we hardly know from Germany, yet his creativity is fascinating, always one to engage unlikily timbral combinations. And Smeyers has written well,analysis on Hespos following his music for over 20 years. You might find his music excessive,he does use extended techniques and writes his music graphically,so to exploit the extremes of the musical situation,requiring the use of the voice from the performer,and sometimes doctoring the instrument with different mouthpieces so to transform its classical constitution. Crawford Seeger as well,a pity she didn't write more in her relativily short life. The suites here are also focused on pure instrumental sound, and for their time prior to 1950, they are experimental. The very idea of writing for a solo instruments or duo was a step into the unknown. She trys her best to utilize 12 tone thinking,but she finds her own voice here,never coldly abstract,she writes always with a sense of direction,shape and emotive goals.The Steve Reich is like Bach, and you know the minimalist gesturing already, no comment necessary.Anything from the early part of his career, Philip Glass as well, was the pioneering music, and the most orthodox,before they fell on their faces and started turning minimalism into popular minimalism of the market."