Klarinet Archive - Posting 000595.txt from 1996/03

From: thehat@-----.ORG
Subj: NY Concert
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 1996 15:08:33 -0500

I saw a very interesting concert last night at Alice Tully Hall. The Los
Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, under Esa-Pekka Salonen, gave a concert.
The LA Phil in its entirety is giving two concerts this weekend at Avery
Fischer Hall.

The draw for me was the chance to hear the NY premiere of Jouni Kaipainen's
"Carpe diem!" a clarinet concerto, which was played by Lorin Levee. Levee is
something of a legend in my mind, as he was perhaps the closest thing to a
real prodigy on the clarinet as is possible. He won the concerto competition
at Interlochen summer camp an unreal number of times (6 or 7, I believe).
This number includes playing the Nielsen from memory as an Intermediate (7th
or 8th grade) camper. A second surprise for me was seeing that Boyde Hood
was playing trumpet in the ensemble. Boyde Hood played lead trumpet on many,
if not most, of the great Eastman Wind Ensemble recordings for Mercury under
Fennell. I grew up with these and treasure the cd reissues. Hood is second
trumpet in the Phil, but was the only trumpet on the program last night.

The concert opened with Stephen Stuckey's "Boston Fancies," a 1985 work for 7
players which I liked very much and wished they had repeated. David Howard, a
list contributor, doubled between clarinet and bass clarinet, the start of a
busy evening for him, as he was the only member of the ensemble that played
on every piece. He played wonderfully, as expected. For those interested, he
used a low e-flat bass which he played with a strap, not a peg (undoubtedly
easier to carry on tour).

The Kaipainen was next. The piece was filled with difficulty, including
glissandos through the throat register and multiphonics. Levee handled them
impressively, with very impressive technical control. I remain unconvinced by
the composer's use of the multiphonic technique in this piece, but Levee was
certainly committed. The composer was present and the performance was well
received by the less-than half full audience (Brendel was playing next door).
Perhaps a piece this difficult will be standard conservatory repertoire
someday. I hope I am retired by then!

After intermission was Salonen's own composition "Floof" for soprano and
chamber ensemble. This was really my favorite performance, as the soprano was
an unbelievable talent, Anu Komsi, from Finland. Only 29, she will play Lulu
next year in Germany. The work involved a lot of effects, in addition to some
incredibly large skips in vocal registers, which she handled flawlessly, as
far as I could tell. Her stage presence was perfect for this humourous piece
and she was applauded warmly. Mr. Howard doubled this time on contrabass
clarinet. Hopefully he doesn't have to carry that thing around himself.

The concert closed with the Schoenberg Op. 9 Kammersymphonie. The
clarinetists were Monica Kaenzig, e-flat clarinet, Lorin Levee, soprano
clarinet and David Howard, bass clarinet. The tempos were very swift in the
"A" sections of the piece and the entire ensemble played in a truly virtuoso
fashion, with special kudos to the string players, whose parts are
unforgivingly hard. Ms. Kaenzig was superb, handling an unforgiving part as
well as I have heard anyone play it. She is the newest member of the section.

Over the weekend the Phil is playing Mahler 4 and an all Stravinsky concert.
Then, on to Europe!

Hopefully Mr. Howard will give us the full report when he gets back. Cheers
>from Brooklyn!

David Hattner
clarinetist-at-large, NYC
-> Alice4Mac 2.4.4 E QWK Eval:04Feb96
Origin: Hat's Nut House