Customer Reviews

Stephen Hartke: Clarinet Concerto

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As the blurb on the CD says, Stephen Hartke is "acclaimed for...direct emotional connection with his audiences." This does not mean, however, that he's another one of those "accessible" American composers who have foresworn everything dissonant, witty, complex, or nuanced in order to curry favor with dullards. This music sparks and sparkles, sings and swings. I especially liked "Gradus," which Hartke describes as a "little processional" up the mountaintop "to the abode of the Muses." It's filled with extremely rhythmic, constantly varied counterpoint for a chamber sextet of strings, bass clarinet, piano and percussion. (Here's a shout-out to Beth Newdome, the superb violinist in "Gradus" -- we miss you in Atlanta, girl!)

The major work on this CD is the Clarinet Concerto "Landscapes with Blues," also beautifully played. Richard Stoltzman, for whom it was commissioned, gets plenty of opportunities to exhibit his famous blues inflections and timbre shifts. A really expressive, vital performance, with crack support from the IRIS Chamber Orchestra (where is Germantown, TN, anyway?). Only the middle movement seems to flag a bit in inspiration (for the composer, not the performers -- a few stock phrases from the Stravinsky catalog find their way into what is otherwise a very individual approach).

Stephen Hartke will not startle you with superficial novelty. This is user-friendly tonal music, but fashioned with economy and real passion. It holds your interest AND it engages emotionally. The performances are all top-notch and the recording is of demonstration quality. Buy it!

Stephen Hartke is enjoying quite a réclame these days, what with an increasing number of performances world-wide. A New Jersey native, he is a long-time professor of composition at the University of Southern California. He belongs to that group of 'post-modern' composers who are not minimalist but are definitely tonal. His music partakes of the teeming cosmopolitan influences of American music--blues, Stravinsky, urban jazz, rock, plainchant, Bernstein, salsa, you name it. He manages to fuse it all together in such a way that all you can do is gape at the craft of it while you're also singing or tapping your foot or feeling the urge to get up and dance. It is filled with verve and incident. I don't think there is a slack or unengaging moment on this entire hour-long disc.

The Clarinet Concerto, written for and played here by the inimitable Richard Stoltzman, is in three movements, each partaking of a different American genre, although they get all mixed together at times: West African rhythms, Delta blues, New York jazz. The almost thirty-minute concerto swings from beginning to end, and Stoltzman--what can I say?--rocks. What he does with the clarinet makes the opening gliss of 'Rhapsody in Blue' sound a hundred years old. (Come to think of it, it almost is! Well, 75 anyhow. Now THAT'S a sobering thought!)

'Pacific Rim' continues this mixing of styles, this time Asian and Latin (get it? the two sides of the Pacific Ocean?). For full orchestra, it is formally a prelude and fugue, but you'd probably not realize that unless told because mostly it charges ahead breezily. Nothing academic about THIS counterpoint.

The two chamber pieces here are 'The Rose of the Winds,' a string octet, and 'Gradus,' for bass clarinet, vibraphone, piano, violin, cello and double bass. 'Rose' is altogether more austere, echoing the New Mexico landscape that inspired it. One sees distant vistas, heat rising, jagged cliffs, sky so blue it hurts your eyes. Mostly the piece is quiet, but it manages to be soulful, too. 'Gradus' was written for the chamber group Parnassus (ooh, a pun: gradus ad parnassum, right?). Of course, 'gradus ad parnassum' was also the name of various musical books of studies (including the first of them by J. J. Fux) and implies a slow ascent to the heights of musical mastery step by step. But this 'Gradus' dances. Picture a group of young people filled with the energy of youth climbing a mountain; the ascent can't dampen their need to jump, dance, jostle, joke, and race.

Hartke's music is a joyful thing. I'd not encountered any of it before, although I'd heard his name spoken with admiration by a composer of my acquaintance. Now I know why. From the evidence of this disc he writes music that is both accessible and meticulously crafted in a completely tonal language informed by a wildly creative musical imagination. It's eventful, engaging, surprising and immensely satisfying.

The group of instrumentalists here is the fairly new IRIS Chamber Orchestra, led by Michael Stern. Stern is a rising conductor (and a son of violinist Isaac Stern) whom I've heard several times in concert and who always leaves a positive impression. The IRIS group, of which he is the founder and music director, is located in Germantown, Tennessee (an affluent suburb of Memphis), and from the sound of it they are a talented group. The soloists in the chamber pieces are members of the orchestra.

This disc is a winner. And the Clarinet Concerto will undoubtedly join the repertoire of pieces for clarinet and orchestra.

TT=59'44"

Scott Morrison

I thought that this CD was terrible. I bought it for my husband, who loves traditional jazz, is an expert, and owns hundreds of CDs of traditional jazz. He also likes classical music, fusion, and plays the trumpet.
The music is modern and, to my ear, atonal. It in no way resembled the promo blurb, describing the influences of jazz, West Africa, etc. I was very disappointed.
Considering how much great clarinet music in all genres is out there, I would not receommend this CD.
You like obscure jazz? Try The Living Room Tapes with Lenny Breau and Brad Terry [...].