"MENTORS", a recently issued disc
of German Romantic music for clarinet and piano, presents works of Reger,
Brahms and Schumann performed by two Italian artists - Gaia Gaibazzi (clarinet)
and Clarissa Carafa (piano). In her liner notes, Gaibazzi writes: "The
works of Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Max Reger offer fascinating
insights into how composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries reinterpreted
and transformed the musical languages of their time." This Da Vinci
Classics album presents a carefully-chosen and representative selection of
Romantic works for clarinet and piano, works that are both technically
demanding and emotionally profound.
In late 1890, Johannes Brahms was planning his will and declaring that his compositional career was at an end. Then, in 1894, on his summer vacation in the Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl, however, the composer wrote to clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld (principal clarinettist of the Meiningen Court Orchestra as of 1879, and whose playing Brahms had already encountered in the early 1880s) inviting him to visit him there for the two to play "two modest sonatas with piano". In fact, Brahms’ music for clarinet was clearly influenced by Mühlfeld's performance style. The first performances of the Op. 120 Sonatas were given privately soon afterwards, with the press proclaiming that these works were “wonderful” and that they "would cause a great sensation”. Indeed, a comeback from self-imposed artistic retirement has rarely reaped a more illustrious outcome than in the case of the two Opus 120 Sonatas for clarinet and piano! Gaia Gaibazzi and Clarissa Carafa perform the first of the two - Sonata No.1 in F minor. From the initial sounds of the opening Allegro appassionato movement (more wistful than passionate coming from Brahms' pen) one becomes aware of the artists' total affinity with the work, as they move hand-in-glove to seize each of Brahms' different gestures, each of the work's personal contours. Together they recreate the work's wonderful contrasts of texture and emotional energy, its urgency and grace, as its mostly introspective course culminates in the exuberance of the final Vivace movement. Their playing engages flexibility of tempo, so integral to the spontaneity of Brahms' musical expression, as Gaibazzi's lush playing exploits all the expressive possibilities unique to the clarinet, with Carafa's depth of understanding, the surging waves of feeling woven through and her penchant for the Romantic style are endorsed by easeful virtuosity.
Clarinettists and many music-lovers are
familiar with Brahms' sonatas for clarinet and piano, but, somewhat
surprisingly, not all have heard Max Reger’s three clarinet and piano sonatas.
Indeed, it was on hearing one of Brahms' Op. 120 sonatas that inspired Reger to
write his own. Brahms' influence is evident in their contrapuntal writing,
their textures, the elaborate piano parts and singing clarinet roles, but Reger’s
sonatas also bring attention to his rich, 20th-century idiom. Performing Sonata
No.1 of Opus 49, that in A-flat major (1900), Gaibazzi and Carafa give
exciting expression to Reger's original thematic material and harmonic
progressions, as they engage in the sonata's plethora of colourful dynamics and
intricate phrasing with freshness, buoyancy, inventiveness and finespun
sensitivity. Their fine teamwork and transparency of sound present the listener
with each gesture and nuance. In addition to the sonata, the artists perform
two of Reger's charming miniatures, pieces which testify to the pleasure Reger
(like Brahms) took in domestic music-making, those items generally being published
in music journals, reflecting the composer’s desire to reach a wider public via
smaller works. Carafa and Gaibazzi's delivery of "Albumblatt" (1902)
is flowing, placid, at times pondering, their playing of the
"Tarantella" (1902) effervescent, bold and wonderfully shaped, its
zesty course temporarily halted by the coy middle section.
In February 1849, Dresden was seized by
violent political turmoil, forcing Robert and Clara Schumann to flee to the
countryside. In a whirl of feverish writing, Robert Schumann created the
Fantasiestücke Op. 73 in two days. Coming from one of the happier
periods of his life and career, the work (originally titled “Soiréestücke”, to
which he then gave preference to the more poetic title) was published later
that year. The first performance of the original clarinet and piano setting was
given at a concert in Leipzig in January 1850. Carafa and Gaibazzi move
seamlessly and deftly from the fantasies' moments of deep introspection through
to its bursts of euphoria, each bewitching, unexpected harmonic shift sweeping
the listener into a different fulcrum of Schumann's stream of consciousness.
Expressive, buoyant and spontaneous, their playing of the three splendid
miniatures is carefully paced and flexed, giving sincerity and warmth to the
poetry and lush beauty of the Fantasiestücke.
Recorded at the Palazzo Cigola Martinoni,
Brescia, Italy in November 2023, this is a disc to appeal to lovers of Romantic
music and fine performance. Gaibazzi plays a Buffet Crampon RC clarinet; Carafa
plays on a Steinway & Sons model D piano.
