Klarinet Archive - Posting 000540.txt from 1996/02

From: Marshall Mentz <mmentz@-----.EDU>
Subj: Corigliano Concerto- a personal experience
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 1996 18:58:08 -0500

I forgot who it was, but someone wanted to know about some contemporary
clarinet music other that the usual stuff ie Mozart and Weber etc..
Well, I found myself in the public library looking in the limited
classical music section for a piece that our college orchestra was going
to be playing (Alas, they didn't have it, but then isn't that when you
find the most interesting music anyway? That's what happened to me.)
when I saw this clarinet concerto I had never heard of before. It was
Richard Stoltzman playing the John Corigliano Clarinet Concerto. I
brought it home, stuck it in the CD player and was blown away. At first
I thought the CD player was broken because of the strange beginning. So
I started it again. Same thing. I took it out and put in another CD.
Seemed to be working fine. So I put back the CC in the CD player and just
listened. I was amazed. That is probably the most virtuosic piece of
music (for the soloist and orchestra) that I have ever heard.
I mentioned this to my teacher and he told me about and let me listen to the
Stanley Drucker recording. I went out and bought it the next day.
For anyone not familiar with it, according to the notes in the CD
pamphlet, it was written for Stanley Drucker in 1977.
Well, that's my story. I guess the moral is to go to the public library
and look around. You'll be amazed at what you find. :-)

Marshall Mentz
mmentz@-----.edu