Study Music - January 18

Having heard a bit of his clarinet quintet on ABC Classic FM on the drive to work, I decided I'd listen to Mozart's Clarinet Concerto first today. It's a long-time favourite of mine and it's been a while since I listened to the whole thing. So I did a search on Spotify to pick a version. Too many options, but I couldn't go past Sabine Meyer with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado. It's a 1999 recording, which I refuse to admit was 20 years ago.

The recording is crisp and clear, as is Meyer's playing which breathes life into the phrases so they aren't simply demonstrations of her virtuosity, but vivid expressions of life and joy. This empathetic playing is even more realised in the next piece on the album, Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodie. This was a new piece for me but recalled some of Debussy's more ethereal moods. Which flowed nicely to the last piece on the album Toru Takemitsu's Fantasma/Cantos, a truly ethereal piece conjuring a dreamlike world of mists and hidden creatures, wonders and dangers.

In all the album, named as a list of the works on it, is a great example of Meyer's brilliance - and that of the Berliner Phil - and a delightful listen in general. Highly recommended.

Inspired by the Fantasma/Cantos I went to Takemitsu's page on Spotify and found there are several albums of his complete piano works. I went with the most recent, recorded last year, featuring the playing of Lukas Huisman. As soon as I hit play I was in unfamiliar territory. Short phrases, rising and falling, stillness in the motion. Often when I've heard something like it there's been troubled emotion beneath the music - the despair and anger of Shostakovich for example - but here it wasn't so. Trouble yes, perhaps even sorrow at times, but only times. More, it seemed to be the vibrations of life. The rain breaking the surface of the water, the movements breaking the stillness of a body at rest. It is that moment, the one between stillness and breath, that Takemitsu's music captures. For me at any rate. I can't say it's a lulling place, quite the opposite, but not stirring either. It is a beauty of which I am completely unaware, although I recall a philosopher, Lyotard I think, saying that it is in the moment of something happening, after it hasn't but before it has past, that isolated moment of pure action and existence that is the sublime.

Busy Busoni - A Review

The following is a review I just submitted to Classicsonline of Busoni orchestral works, featuring the Clarinet Concertino, by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma conducted by Francesco La Vecchia. It's on the NAXOS label and you can find it here.

Before seeing this album I only knew the name Busoni from a transcription of Bach on a James Rhodes album. I was lured in to this one however by the clarinet concertino – I collect clarinet concertos. I’m very glad I got it too, not just the one piece but the whole album.

Most of the pieces, like the Lustspielouverture and the Flute Divertimento, are lively classic fare with an infusion of something more modern than I’d expect. The whole album is very energetic, and captured beautifully in the recording which has clarity with all the instruments. There’s also a richness to the music and a constant sense of movement; it’s never boring.

It’s never more surprising though than the Rondo Arlecchinesco, which lives up to its zany namesake. Even after several listens the sudden entrance of the tenor is surprising.

And of course I have to talk about the Clarinet Concertino. What a delight! It’s not as robust and dramatic as the rest, allowing for a quieter moment which in itself is no bad thing, but the way the clarinet seems to drift over the other instruments as if they were the water and it the boat, is simply magic.