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Thursday 10th September 2020

Clarinet Compilation

Guest Host: Lynda Chang

Artistes:
• Jack Brymer, & London Symphony Orchestra
• Michael Collins, & Mikhail Pletnev, piano
• Sharon Kam, & Jersulaem String Quartet
• Karl Leister, & James Levine, piano
• Sabine Mayer, & Oleg Maisenberg piano

Music by: Mozart • Weber • Brahms • Poulenc • Milhaud

Starts: when you are ready
latecomers will be admitted at your personal discretion

Listening position:

Relax with your choice(s) of beverage, in a place of your choosing, alone, or with company

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Clarinet Compilation


Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
Clarinet Concerto in A (1791)
    2 Adagio

performed by the London Symphony Orchestra
Jack Brymer, clarinet  •  Sir Colin Davis, conductor


​Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Grand Duo Concertante Op 48, J204 (1815)
    Allegro con fuoco    Bright, quick, fiery
    Andante con moto    Walking pace with movement
    Rondo: allegro    Bright, quick

performed by Michael Collins, clarinet, and Mikhail Pletnev, piano


​Johannes Brahms (1833-97)
Clarinet Quintet (1st movement) Op.115 B minor (1891)
    1 Allegro (13+')

performed by the Jerusalem String Quartet, with Sharon Kam, clarinet


Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (1899-1963)
Clarinet Sonata  FP184  (1962)
    1 Allegro tristamente   Quick, with sadness
    2 Romanza (très calme)    Romance, (very calm)
    3 Allegro con fuoco (très animé)  Quick, bright, fiery (very animated)

performed by Karl Leister, clarinet, and James Levine, piano


Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
from Scaramouche Op 165b (1937)
    3 Brasileira

performed by Sabine Meyer, clarinet, and Oleg Maisenberg, piano

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I am delighted to hand over the reins for this concert as they will be in the extremely capable hands of Lynda Chang. Lynda's piano skills are known to many. She is a proven soloist, ensemble player, and choral accompanist, with substantial experience, backed up by sound knowledge, and great sensitivity. Please welcome Lynda Chang.       [Peter]

Greetings once again in this semi-existence of the Covid world!  Will it never end?

For some temporary respite, today's programme ventures into the realm of the clarinet -  an astonishingly mercurial soundscape that can be alternately virtuosic, declamatory, smooth, mellow, warm-hearted and, when required, cheeky with cat-like agility.  Why else would Prokofiev have chosen the clarinet to represent the scampering feline from his fairy tale for children, Peter and the Wolf?

The instrument's versatility - as soloist, chamber music player or orchestral member - makes it impossible to do it justice in one short concert.  On this basis, my selections are primarily chamber works with only one digression beyond the limitations of our regular venue - Leatherhead Methodist Church.

​And here, to open our concert, is the digression.  This work is simply too perfect to be left out.

It was the first concerto to be written for the clarinet (or more likely - its close cousin, the basset horn) by such a major composer as Mozart, and was completed just two months before he died at the age of 35.

So popular is this work that there can hardly be anyone who hasn't heard it before.  The Adagio 2nd movement, above all, is unbearably beautiful, serene and other-worldly - a sense of being carried off to heaven.  However many times I listen to it, the music never ceases to soothe and comfort.  I hope you will feel it too.

Who better, then, to play for us than Jack Brymer - arguably the greatest English clarinettist of all time - accompanied by the LSO.  This music accompanied an extraordinary 7-minute clip from the 1985 film 'Out of Africa' (Meryl Streep and Robert Redford) during which not a word is spoken - just Mozart and panorama.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)   (7m00)
Clarinet Concerto in A (1791)
2 Adagio

performed by the London Symphony Orchestra
Jack Brymer, clarinet  •  Sir Colin Davis, conductor

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​Twenty some odd years after the Mozart concerto, Carl Maria von Weber - the great German romantic composer - took up where Mozart had left off and wrote a number of distinguished works for the clarinet.  Among them is the miniature masterpiece, Grand Duo, for clarinet and piano - aptly named because the pianist becomes an equal partner to the soloist in this 'quasi concerto'.  Both players are called upon to respond and correspond as one - displaying the same spirit, the same subtleties, and seamlessly turning on a sixpence in the many sudden and witty changes of mood.

All the tunefulness, bombast, pyrotechnical demands and breathless excitement that are the calling card of Weber can be found here.  The opening movement is joyful and exuberant. The Andante is an oasis of calm.  And I defy any listener not to raise a smile at the clever and deftly turned phrases of the Rondo and to marvel at its virtuosic flourishes.

At the age of 16, Michael Collins was the woodwind section winner of the first BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.  He continues to be widely sought after as a performer and also works as a professor at the Royal College of Music. 

In this 1988 recording, he is accompanied by Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev:

​Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Grand Duo Concertante Op 48, J204 (1815)
Allegro con fuoco    Bright, quick, fiery    (8')
Andante con moto    Walking pace with movement    (6')
Rondo: allegro    Bright, quick    (7')

performed by Michael Collins, clarinet, and Mikhail Pletnev, piano

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And so to Brahms, whose late works for clarinet are venerated the world over.  The quintet, in particular, is admired even by those who are not normally ardent fans of Brahms.

In fact the great man had already retired from composing when the clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld first came to his attention.  So impressed was he with the player's beautiful tone that he immediately set to work on this quintet.  It was an immediate success and acknowledged as a major work of the time.

The whole quintet lasts about 35 minutes and is regrettably too long to be included in full here, although I hope that stalwarts will search out the three other movements on youtube as well.  It is often described as an 'autumnal' work, a mellow reflection on the life already lived.  Perhaps.  But for me, it is the sound of a glorious and glowing maturity.

I have chosen the recording featuring Sharon Kam with the superbly sensitive Jerusalem Quartet - five consummate professionals performing as one.  It is a more overtly romantic reading than some others, but I love it for Kam's liquid tone and mellifluous phrasing. 

A word of warning - these are musicians who 'move' with the music - it is not to everyone's taste so if you feel a bout of seasickness coming on, please just avert your eyes.  It will not detract one iota from the beautiful performance.

​Johannes Brahms (1833-97)    (13m10)
Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op 115 (1891)
1 Allegro (13+')

performed by the Jerusalem String Quartet, with Sharon Kam, clarinet

If you have time, or you would like to come back to them later, here are the three remaining movements:

2 Adagio    (11m24)

3 Andantino - Presto non assai, ma con sentimento    (4m32)

4 Con moto    (9m14)

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From one 'autumnal' work to another as we enter the world of French music - although not to what we typically think of as French 'impressionist' music.

Poulenc was part of a group of six avant-garde composers (called Les Six) who consciously rejected the styles of Wagner and even Debussy in order to forge their own 'voice'.  Regardless of his deliberate use of, for example, 'wrong' notes, Poulenc created an unmistakably French and emotionally compelling sound.  The use of pastiche and parody as well as innovative rhythmic patterns were common features of his works.

The sonata is inscribed to the memory of Arthur Honegger - a fellow member of Les Six.  The second movement, in particular, has been described as opening with a heart-rending shriek at the news of the death of a dear friend, followed by an elegy.  The last movement is an energetic mix of nimble, articulate and rhapsodic themes, held together by a clownish tune - typical of Poulenc's musical style.

Karl Leister was for many years principal clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic.  I believe he captures the lightness of touch in French music that sometimes eludes performers.

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (1899-1963)
Clarinet Sonata  FP184  (1962)   (14')
1 Allegro tristamente   Quick, with sadness
2 Romanza (très calme)    Romance, (very calm)
3 Allegro con fuoco (très animé)  Quick, bright, fiery (very animated)

performed by Karl Leister, clarinet, and James Levine, piano

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And now for a blistering finale.

Another member of Les Six, Milhaud was much influenced by jazz and Brazilian music, and deliberately used 'polytonality' in his departure from the German romantic tradition.  He it was who famously said to Burt Bacharach - 'Don't be afraid of writing something people can remember and whistle. Don't ever feel discomfited by a melody.'

I cannot think of a piece that so embodies playful exuberance as the last movement of his work Scaramouche, originally written for two pianos but endlessly performed by clarinet or saxophone so that it has become a staple of the woodwind repertoire.

This performance from 2007 by Sabine Meyer and Oleg Maisenberg captures not only the rollicking samba character at the beginning and the end of the movement, but also makes a pretty contrast of the lyrical section in between.  I hope it will get you toe-tapping at home!

So on this much needed, light-hearted note, I wish you all well and sincerely hope that we will meet in person one day soon.

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
Scaramouche Op 165b (1937)   (2')
Brasileira

performed by Sabine Meyer, clarinet, and Oleg Maisenberg, piano

Researcher & Presenter: Lynda Chang
Series Editor: Peter Steadman
Assisted by: Richard Miller & Jane Forrester

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We hope you have enjoyed your Clarinet Compilation  Concert Online


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Recorded 'as live'

Music on Thursdays

will be a key part of the live & virtual

In October we will bring you

5 Festival concerts
recorded by our artistes
in their own choice of venue

as if each was coming to you live

Here is the line-up for 12.30 lunchtime release on each of these dates:

October 1st
pianist Eddie Lee's Jazz on Thursday

October  8th
Diphonon Duo
Michael Iskas, viola & Iñigo Mikeleiz Berrade, accordion

October 15th
Organist Marion Bettsworth - at the organ of St Michael's Highgate, London

October  22nd  ♥  CarmenCo
Carmen's story told in music by
Emily Andrews, flute, and the guitars of Francisco Correa & David Massey

October  29th
chromatic harmonica player Phil Hopkins with Stuart Whatton, piano accompanist


please note: in October we will be sending reminder emails early on the Thursday morning, and again a few minutes before each concert.
If you register for a concert, youtu.be may also send you a reminder.
It's all very new to LCAS and the Festival, so please bear with us !

Concert Selections still available on this Website:


Please click on a title to go to the concert webpage

• Marina Kan's AGM Piano Concert

• Concert for St George's Day and Shakespeare's Birthday
1 May 2020 Music on May Day Online
• Music on MayDay

• Music for VE Day 75th Anniversary

• Piano à Deux - Linda Ang Stoodley & Robert Stoodley, 4 hands on 1 piano

• Clocks & Cathedrals (musical clocks, that is)

• Guitars & Friends - a guitar medley

• Beethoven & Haydn String Quartets

• Cello Tango - from solos to multi cellists

• Organs of Paris  ♥ Les Orgues de Paris

• Flute Fest

• Virtual Viola, hosted by Lynda Chang

• Multi Piano - pianos from two to 12 at a time

• From Sackbutt to Trombone

• Harp Haven - our President's 100th Birthday Concert

• Oboe Omnibus

• Gentle Guitar

• Music for Unusual Instruments

• Viola da Gamba, hosted by Ibrahim Aziz

• Music & the Military

• Choral Music

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