The Art of the Cla­ri­net Soloist: The part­ner­ship of Soloist and Composer

What a joy to be asked to review the won­der­ful play­ing of Linda Mer­rick and the accom­pa­ny­ing ensembles!

The two discs I have been asked to con­sider are; Linda Mer­rick Cla­ri­net (Poly­phonic QPRM 137D) accom­pan­ied by the Wind Orches­tra of the Royal North­ern Col­lege of Music con­duc­ted by James Gour­lay and Guy Woolfenden and Mas­quer­ade — Philip Sparke (Anglo AR 007–3), which includes Sparke’s cla­ri­net concerto.

For me, the excit­ing part of this pro­cess has been to listen with both a crit­ical listener and conductor’s ear and also the more crit­ical ear of the com­poser. I have not been let down in any way. The play­ing is first class both from soloist and ensemble and the com­pos­i­tions them­selves are at once refresh­ing in their express­ive­ness and energy and invent­ive in the treat­ment of soloist and orchestra.

Let me begin with the music from the Royal North­ern Col­lege of Music, where Mer­rick is Head of Pro­fes­sional Per­form­ance Stud­ies and Senior Tutor in Cla­ri­net. This record­ing is as diverse in the music land­scape it tra­verses, as it is enga­ging in the musical nar­rat­ives it rep­res­ents. From tra­di­tional forms of con­certo to major pro­gram­matic works for cla­ri­net and wind orches­tra the music presen­ted can­vasses the con­tem­por­ary writ­ing styles of some of Britain’s lead­ing com­posers. It also rep­res­ents Mer­rick as a ser­i­ous com­mis­sioner of new works for her instrument.

Ellerby’s Cla­ri­net Con­certo is an excel­lent start­ing point with its mix of fine soloist, a com­poser with romantic type influ­ences and the romantic con­nec­tion of a hus­band and wife team. The com­poser describes it as “a ‘sun­shine’ con­certo … writ­ten in a frenzy of activ­ity in the late sum­mer of 2000″. This is uplift­ing writ­ing and enjoy­able listen­ing. The joy and cheeky nature of the com­poser and his influ­ences per­meate the work and the play­ing brings with it great under­stand­ing of such a con­text. The effer­ves­cence of the writ­ing leaps into the inter­pret­a­tion and Mer­rick cap­tures the essence of the work won­der­fully. The charm of the second move­ment is some­thing to be savoured.

I am some­what sub­ject­ive in my views on the next piece, the Battles and Chants of Nigel Clarke. I am pleased that I have been able to get to know Clarke over the last few years. So, sub­jectiv­ity; how can I be accused of that in this situ­ation? Well, his music is just frantic at times and he takes the listen­ers breathe away at oth­ers and he brings to his musical can­vas an intens­ity that is com­pel­ling for me. I endeav­our to write with his fer­vour and his appar­ent zeal and so, when I hear music like this I am drawn to it! This is pro­gram music of a high order that hap­pens to also be in the mould of the three move­ment con­certo form. The work describes (as the com­poser tells) “the struggle of Cassivel­launus, a tri­bal leader in Bri­tain in 54 BC (and his battles with) Julius Caesar and his legions”. Here is music replete with drama, angst, fury and des­pair. It is ingeni­ous and solid in its craft and orches­tra­tional adeptness.

The Rondo Vari­ations of Guy Woolfenden are a delight! It is charm­ing music and art­fully so. The African Dances of Kit Turn­ball are effer­ves­cent in nature and placed within a single move­ment form but with five delin­eated sec­tions. Listen­ing, you will hear styles that will be famil­iar and also have you tap­ping your foot! The enthu­si­astic play­ing of the soloist engages you too. Mal­colm Arnold’s The Pre-Goodman Rag (arranged by Woolfenden) is typ­ical of his quirky writ­ing style and has the fin­ger­prints of rag­time firmly planted all over it. The style is not my favour­ite but the play­ing of both Mer­rick and the ensemble is first class.

This is an excel­lent album for any aspir­ing cla­ri­net soloist and also for any com­poser want­ing to gain a broad sense of what the cla­ri­net can do as a solo instru­ment. The pieces presen­ted allowed Mer­rick to invest­ig­ate the instru­ment in a way that leaves the listener enter­tained, encour­aged and some­times maybe a little baffled, but not alienated.

The second record­ing con­tains, as noted above, the Sparke Cla­ri­net Con­certo. The soloist is again Linda Mer­rick and the accom­pa­ny­ing ensemble on the con­certo track is the Rundfunk-Blasorchester, con­duc­ted by Jan Cober.

As a con­ductor I have been a Sparke pro­gram­mer for years. I enjoy his lyr­i­cism and his won­der­ful con­trol of orches­tra­tion and form. This work is no excep­tion. Most not­able for me is the pro­cess of the com­pos­i­tion that has taken place. Mer­rick, as part of her doc­toral stud­ies, has been invest­ig­at­ing the nature of col­lab­or­a­tion between com­poser and com­mis­sioner. The liner notes tell us that:

Philip Sparke usu­ally waits until a piece is fully fin­ished before present­ing it to any­one, but in this case Linda asked to be kept informed of the com­plete pro­cess of com­pos­i­tion, includ­ing mater­ial which did not make it into the final work.

One must won­der at what influ­ences the com­mis­sioner and soloist had on the pro­cess? But this is Sparke at his best and Mer­rick in delight­ful part­ner­ship with him.

These record­ings bear test­a­ment to fine skills and ener­getic and con­sid­er­able musi­cian­ship. They should be in the lib­rary of any ser­i­ous stu­dent of the cla­ri­net and are worthy addi­tions to the col­lec­tion of young and old com­posers alike!

Ralph Hult­gren
Head of Pre-Tertiary Stud­ies
Queens­land Con­ser­vat­orium of Music, Grif­fith University

Little Rip­per! Wind band music by David Stan­hope
Elder Con­ser­vat­orium Wind Ensemble
Robert Hower
David Stan­hope was a French horn player with the Adelaide Sym­phony Orches­tra but moved to Sydney in 1979. As a pian­ist he has made record­ings for EMI of the music of Percy Grainger and his com­pos­i­tions since then are strongly influ­enced by the work of Grainger. This disc fea­tures Stanhope’s three Folk­song Suites for Band, the standout for me being the Suite No. 3. The Con­certo for Band is a par­ody of sev­eral com­posers and writ­ten as a set of vari­ations over three move­ments and show­cases the vir­tu­os­ity of every mem­ber of the ensemble. E.G.B.D.S. is a bi-tonal and bi-metrical com­pos­i­tion ded­ic­ated to Edvard Grieg, again imit­at­ing the life and work of Percy Grainger. The title track from the CD, The Little Rip­per, is a rol­lick­ing and fun-filled march loved by all who hear it. The Elder Con­ser­vat­orium Wind Ensemble and their con­ductor Robert Hower have for many years been the best wind ensemble in Aus­tralia and they per­form beau­ti­fully on this CD. I only wish we could hear many more record­ings from this fine ensemble.

You can pur­chase Little Rip­per! from Tall Pop­pies.

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Screamers/March Time
East­man Wind Ensemble
Fre­d­er­ick Fen­nell
This CD by the East­man Wind Ensemble is a com­pil­a­tion of two earlier albums: March Time was recor­ded back in 1957 and Scream­ers was recor­ded in 1962. This is an enjoy­able CD to listen to and the vir­tu­os­ity of the East­man Wind Ensemble does not dis­ap­point. Have a listen to the incred­ible agil­ity of the trom­bone sec­tion on Heed’s In Storm and Sun­shine and Fillmore’s Rolling Thun­der. Recor­ded as part of the Mer­cury Liv­ing Pres­ence series this ses­sion used the ensemble in their reg­u­lar seat­ing arrange­ment and used only three micro­phones out the front. So what you hear is the tal­ent of the con­ductor and musi­cians, not the tal­ent of the record­ing engin­eer. Other selec­tions on the CD include Hall’s Officer of the Day, Alford’s The Mad Major and Karl King’s Cir­cus Days.

Wild­flowers
North Texas Wind Sym­phony
Eugene Cor­poron
Another stun­ning CD by Eugene Cor­poron and the North Texas Wind Sym­phony recorder by Klavier. The CD starts with Pulitzer Prize-winning com­poser Ernst Toch’s Spiel, Op. 39. This work was ori­gin­ally writ­ten to be per­formed at the 1926 Donaueschin­gen Music Fest­ival organ­ised by Paul Hindemith. The next work, and the moun­tains rising nowhere by Joseph Schwant­ner is one of the most import­ant com­pos­i­tions ever writ­ten for wind ensemble. The East­man Wind Ensemble per­formed this work numer­ous times as an example of what a great com­poser can achieve with the wind ensemble medium. The North Texas Wind Sym­phony gives a great per­form­ance of Percy Grainger’s Lin­colnshire Posy and fol­lows that with Dana Wilson’s Dance of the New World. Wil­liam Child’s three-movement Con­certo for Solo Per­cus­sion­ist is next on the disc with Yamaha artist Steve Houghton in the solo chair. To round of the disc is one of my favour­ite works, Paul Hart’s par­ody Car­toon. This CD from Eugene Cor­poron and the North Texas Wind Sym­phony is impress­ively played and beau­ti­fully recor­ded and should be in all wind ensemble libraries.

Michael Torke: Five
Lon­don Sinfonietta/Apollo Quartet

Two of the five works on this CD are of interest to wind ensemble fans. Vanada was com­posed in 1984 for brass, key­boards and per­cus­sion. It is more avant-garde than his other music for winds and brass but a piece well worth being per­formed. Rust, for solo piano with winds, brass and elec­tric bass is a fifteen-minute, one-movement work that com­bines ele­ments of funk with con­tem­por­ary writ­ing for winds and brass. You need a pian­ist with some ser­i­ous chops to tackle the solo but how any­one could not enjoy the chal­lenges presen­ted by Rust is bey­ond me. The CD also con­tains record­ings of Flint, Music on the Floor and Slate. Buy it today.

Michael Torke: Four
Lon­don Sinfonietta/Orkest de Volharding

For wind ensemble enthu­si­asts this CD has two pieces that should be in every great ensemble’s rota­tion. Adjustable Wrench, com­posed in 1987, has four string parts along with the wind, brass and per­cus­sion parts but that shouldn’t dis­count it from being in your band lib­rary. Adjustable Wrench is a fant­astic example of Michael Torke’s happy, post-minimal style and any­one who has had the pleas­ure of hear­ing this track usu­ally falls in love with it from the first bar. Overnight Mail, com­posed in 1997 for winds, brass, piano and bass is a three-movement tour de force for wind ensemble. Sound­ing like a big band com­pos­i­tion minus drum kit, Michael Torke shows that great com­posers don’t always need per­cus­sion to cre­ate momentum and excite­ment. It is also a great piece to extend the sax­o­phone sec­tion and keep all the musi­cians enter­tained. The disc is fin­ished off with a two-movement work, Monday and Tues­day. Superbly per­formed by the Lon­don Sin­foni­etta and the Orkest de Vol­hard­ing, add this CD to your col­lec­tion today.