Doctoral Concert - Exploring Virtuosity
Recorded live at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater's Great Hall on March 12th, 2021.
Clarinet: Vittoria Ecclesia
Piano: Ralf Taal
Program:
Antonio Fraioli (b. 1966)
Quattro pezzi per clarinetto solo – four pieces for solo clarinet (2012)
I. Allegro
II. Andante con libertà
III. Vivace
IV. Vigoroso
Luciano Berio (1925–2003)
Sequenza IX per clarinetto solo – Sequence IX for solo clarinet (1980)
Ester Mägi (b. 1922)
Sonare for clarinet and piano (2000)
Clara Wieck-Schumann (1819–1896), arr. Mark Thiel (b. 1949)
Drei Romanzen op. 22 – Three Romances op. 22 (1853)
I. Andante molto
II. Allegretto
III. Leidenchaftlich schnell
Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775–1838)
Clarinet Concerto no. 2 op. 5 (1818)
I. Allegro
II. Andante pastorale
III. Rondo
Program notes:
The central concept in this artistic project is the investigation of virtuosity. The concert will be a travel back in time, touching virtuosity from different angles. It will be possible to follow through the performance some of the changes that affected this concept, starting from nowadays and reaching back to the beginning of the 19th Century, when virtuosity started to flourish as a fundamental part of the musical discourse. Some of the pieces reinforce the paradigm of virtuosity, others take a distance from it, others touch it without putting it at the center.
It must be mentioned that there is another focus in my main research, the clarinetist and composer Iwan Müller (1786–1854). He is absent from this first recital in terms of repertoire but he will be invisibly present through other musical choices.
The first piece, by the Italian clarinetist and composer Antonio Fraioli (hosted at the Estonian Academy of Music for a masterclass in 2019), is dedicated to a renowned Italian clarinet player, Giovanni Punzi, famous for his outstanding musical and technical skills. It is a set of four short pieces for solo instrument, where tonality and modality intersect. Virtuoso sections and melodic ones are equally balanced, with a touch of jazzy character. It echoes in my mind Iwan Müller, with Fraioli being a clarinetist and a composer too, very well acquainted with the potential and limits of
the instrument, and willing to make the most of it without forgetting to entertain.
The geographic setting of the second piece remains the same, with the clarinet Sequenza by the Italian composer Luciano Berio. It is one of the few sequenzas that was not tailored for a specific artist, although it is dedicated to the French clarinetist Michel Arrignon. In this case, the limits of the instrument itself, not of a specific player, are tested on a more intellectual and abstract level. It is also, in a very different way than Müller’s music, (who wrote his pieces for a 13-keyed instrument invented by himself) written for an instrument that is not mine: during the 80s in Italy, it was very in fashion to have a “complete” clarinet, i.e. one that could play low eb, an instrument that later fell in disuse. The low key would be required in two instances, to produce two different multiphonics, and its absence is conventionally compensated by building an elongating cardboard tube to place into the bell, sordino-like.
The first half of the concert is focused on music for solo instrument, an individualistic 21st Century replication of the virtuoso concerts in the 19th Century then focused on the star of the moment, be it Niccolò Paganini, Iwan Müller, or Theobald Boehm.
In the second half, the concert reopens paying hommage to Ester Mägi, the First Lady of Estonian music, close to her centennial. The one-movement piece Sonare was dedicated to the clarinetist Toomas Vavilov, who is also kindly supervising my artistic work. The piece contains a Cadenza in
the middle, which requires a lightness of fingers and of disposition, while the other sections are more centered on exploiting the melodic characteristics of the instrument.
The three Romances by Clara Schumann that I selected next were originally written for violin and piano, and dedicated to Joseph Joachim. They stand here as an instance of the new romantic taste and sensibility that developed in the second half of the 19th Century, when recitals as we know
today developed, and the focus of a concert was not so much on the virtuoso player but on the music played. Besides, I thought it interesting to deal with music adapted from the violin, which is with the piano, the archetypal virtuoso instrument.
Bernhard Henrik Crusell’s Clarinet Concerto no. 2 is the natural conclusion of this journey. A famous and talented clarinetist, composer, and translator, Crusell was held in high esteem by Müller, who dedicated to him his Clarinet Quartet no. 2, one of the pieces I will investigate in my thesis.
Thank you for watching this concert!
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