Sabine Meyer, Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado – Mozart / Debussy / Takemitsu (1999, Germany)
Our next spotlight is on number 741 on The List, submitted by t4s.
This album consists of five pieces spanning 200 years, performed by German classical solo clarinettist Sabine Meyer and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Claudio Abbado: 18th century Salzburgian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto (Klarinettenkonzert) in A major (K. 622); late 19th/early 20th century French composer Claude Debussy’s First Rhapsody (Première Rhapsodie; L. 116a); and, from mid-late 20th-century Japanese avant-garde composer Tōru Takemitsu (武満 徹), his Fantasma/Cantos (ファンタズマ/カントス). Because I unfortunately am a philistine when it comes to classical music, below I quote directly from the liner notes of this album, written by by English musicologist Richard Langham Smith.
I’m quite grateful for the inclusion of Takemitsu on this album – he seems to have been a rather fascinating character, and I’ve been digging into his works since getting this spotlight ready. If you’re not already familiar, I’d recommend doing the same!
On Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto (tracks 1 to 3):
The Clarinet Concerto was Mozart’s last orchestral work, completed in October of 1791, just two months before is death. It was written for his friend Anton Stadler, whose specialty was the basset-horn, a type of clarinet with an extended range a major third lower than the standard instrument…
The work is rightly considered a masterpiece: it has that hymnic maturity of the the composer’s late works…The composer delights in the exploration of sonorities, not only contrasting the different registers of the clarinet, with notable passages for the low ‘chalumeau’ register, but also using a reduced orchestra which omits the oboes, the more to highlight the reedy voice of the soloist.
…the first and second movements have darker passages which wander into unpredictable keys and exploit the slightly sinister qualities of the clarinet’s lowest register…The Rondo form of the final movement, with its jolly rhythmic theme, conceals hidden depths: against the episodes sometimes stray into deeper waters.
On Debussy’s First Rhapsody (track 4):
Debussy’s Clarinet Rhapsody was first written as…a competition piece for conservatoire students, with piano accompaniment…it was started in December 1909 and completed the following month.
Those who know Debussy’s piece in the version with piano will have an extra dimension of enjoyment added as they hear Debussy’s thoroughly pianistic sonorities transformed, rather than transcribed. Its piano accompaniment, often reliant on a cloud of resonance created by the sustaining pedal, here takes on quite a different character.
Maybe the piece ranks more among those pieces whose impetus was external rather than stemming from a burning artistic idea, but if it is a pot-boiler then it is none the worse for it…Why it was entitled the ‘first’ rhapsody is a matter of surmise: there is no sequel.
On Takemitsu’s Fantasma/Cantos (track 5):
[Toru Takemitsu] has come to be recognised as a major figure: perhaps best described as a voice of the East who expresses himself with the language and instruments of the West…he was largely self-taught, and if he may be allied to a French rather than a Germanic tradition it is perhaps because of his highlighting of timbre – and even silence – as a major component of his musical expression.
First performed in 1991, Fantasma/Cantos was commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation…The orchestra is large and includes a large percussion section including tuned percussion and Thai or Indonesian gongs. Takemitsu himself has explained the relevance of the title: “…’Fantasma’ (fantasy) and ‘Cantos’ (song) – are synonymous. After a brief introduction, a clear melody line, as a result of colourful orchestral figuration, ambiguously undergoes metamorphosis. The structure of the work is influenced by Japanese landscape gardens in the ‘go-round’ style. You walk along the path, stopping here and there to contemplate, and eventually find yourself back where you started from. Yet it is no longer the same starting point.”
