Search - et al Fred Sherry (Performer) :: Five American Clarinet Quintets

A Must Have!

Eric Olson | Detroit, Michigan | 03/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The folks at The Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center with their Artistic Director, Clarinetist David Shifrin, have produced a splendid recording of music written expressly for them. All performances are top-notch. The CD opens with John Corigliano's hauntingly beautiful dialog between violin and clarinet entitled "Soliloquy." Following is what is probably the finest work on the program, the clarinet quintet of Ellen Taffe Zwilich. It's a substantial and well-proprtioned work that really has something to say. It is chamber music in the true sense; everyone involved shares in the musical exchange. Joan Tower's quintet follows, and is of high quality, as one would expect from a composer of her calibre. It is fine music, but does suffer at times of being a bit clarinet-centric. The other two composers represented on this release, Bright Sheng, and Bruce Adolph, have completely fallen into the trap of treating the wind instrument as a soloist, and therefore cannot be considered to be quality chamber music pieces. Their music is enjoyable, however, and one hopes that next time they will consider composing chamber music instead of chamber concerti."