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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lyrical clarinet music from an underrated Russian master, November 18, 2003
This disc contains excellent performances of three clarinet works by Edison Denisov, an important post-Shostakovitch composer who has failed to gain the same popularity as Schnittke, Part, Kancheli, Gubaidulina and others. This is rather understandable, as Denisov was never as prone to extremes as the other composers mentioned, but nonetheless his music is more than good enough to merit continued interest.The Ode for Clarinet, Piano and Percussion is a fairly early work, dating from 1968, when Denisov was attempting to synthesise the music of the Darmstadt-era modernists with a more Russian style. This he certainly succeeds in doing in this work as the pointillist style of the opening coalesces into chant-like melodies later in the work. If not the best of Denisov's modernist pieces--that title surely has to belong to the stunning Sun of the Incas--this is still a significant work. The other works on the disc come from the late 1980s, when Denisov had settled into a more conservative style that combined tonal and atonal elements. The clarinet quintet and clarinet concerto are both largely based on the same melodic line--one that appears in most of Denisov's later work and which, to be honest, can get a little tiresome because of its repeated appearances (those who know more than a couple of Denisov's later works will know which melody I mean). The clarinet quintet is a three-movement work, the moderately fast opening movement beginning nervously and gaining in confidence before losing pace and concluding ruminatively. The slow movement makes play with microtones before the motto theme takes over, while the brief, disruptive finale rounds the work off effectively. The two-movement concerto's first movement begins with a long, ruminative clarinet line over rumbling timpani before the orchestra joins in. The clarinet plays continuously for much of the movement, sometimes in cadenza-like passages over the timpani, sometimes against fierce orchestral tutti. The second movement is slower, more lyrical and rather bleak--the inlay notes compare it to the finale of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony, which seems rather an exaggeration to me--and after the clarinet's long, ruminating melodic line builds to a climax, the music gradually fades into silence. Eduard Brunner is an exemplary soloist in all three performances--which is no surprise, as he has been a great servant to the world of contemporary music--and brings the best possible advocacy to these works. If they do not represent the very best of Denisov (that designation would have to include Sun of the Incas, the Requiem, and possibly the first symphony and saxophone concerto), they are still substantial additions to the clarinet repertoire.
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