Klarinet Archive - Posting 000543.txt from 1995/04

From: jay eric niepoetter <niep@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Shifrin
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 13:09:36 -0400

Well... I've been busy for 'bout 4 days and not checked in with Mr.
Computer and the Klarinet List... It's taken another day just read
everything...

Wed. night I heard David Shifrin with the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center. They played the Weber Quintet and a new work by Joan
Tower. The Tower, called "Turning Points", was also a clarinet quintet.
Shifrin was getting over a cold and said he had trouble hearing, but I
would've never guessed it by his performance. His Weber was really
something. He still has his vibrato going big time, but it never got too
out of hand. I keep looking back on Jonathan Cohler's terrific Klarinet
posting on the use of vibrato. I guess its time I realize that vibrato
is here to stay and that it can be used to greatly enhance a
performance. Get over it Jay.

Everytime I hear Shifrin I am amazed at what an incredible _musician_ the
man is. I think sometimes I get so rapped up in actually playing the
clarinet (scales/ longtones/ arps / etc) that it is easy to forget that
the clarinet is only our means to make the music.

Also, I was impressed at Shifrin's extreames. He pushed the music and the
clarinet to the very edge. His dynamic contrast, musical gestures,
everything, was pushed, not forced, but pushed. It cost him a couple of
times in the control area, but at least he was always doing something.
Nothing boring going on Wed. night!

Does somebody know when and why he started using the virbato? I think it
is rather a new (with-in 5 years ago or so) thing for him. I
could be wrong. I'd be very curious to hear his reasons for the change.

Anyway the Joan Tower piece was good (he did not use vibrato in the
Tower). Very exciting in places, especially the ending. I'll reprint the
composer notes and go on reading the rest of my mail.

"Turning Points" co-commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center and the members of Wisconsin Presenter's Network.

Ms. Tower writes:
"Turning Points" is dedicated to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center's Artisic Director, David Shifrin. In this 15 minute work, the
opening clarinet solo introduces the main thematic material for the whole
of the one-mov't piece. The first idea is a long held note which,
after a crescendo, brifly touches the notes above and below and returns
to itself. This idea is dramatic yet "held" in place. The second idea
ascends slowly and quietly. The third is a consonant short arpeggiation
that rises, rests, and falls. Although this has the effect of an
interlude, it later becomes the basis for a larger section. (For those
of you who like Bartok, you might recognize this from his Contrasts. I
never have been able to "shed" this particular motive!) The fourth theme
is another "held" motive, this time a wide interval (a tenth) that is
slow and dolce. It appears at the end of the solo when the quartet
quietly comes in,picking up the final notes of the clarinet solo. These
four ideas are developed and transformed throughout the piece, taking on
recognizable but different identities as they interact more and more with
each other.

In a pre-concert lecture Joan Tower said that one the biggest influence on
her composing was Messiaen. She said that the Quartet for the End of
Time changed her life forever. The long crescs. in her "Turning Points"
reminded me of the long crescs. in the Abyss of the Birds mov't. Between
her quotes of the Bartok Contrasts and the Messiaen, I wonder if
Shrifin's CD of the two works together gets played by her CD player once
in awhile?

Jay N.