For solo clarinet and chamber orchestra
solo cl.
2 ob., 1 bn.
harpsichord
strings
Duration: 12 minutes
Commissioned by Albany Symphony Orchestra

You can listen here, on Albany Symphony’s Instant Encore page.

Program Note:

When I was commissioned to write a modern work in the spirit of Baroque music, I began exploring the music of the era beyond its harmonic idiom. I decided to compose a piece that resembles a Baroque solo concerto through an imaginative exploration of the subtle, yet deeply inherent characteristics of Baroque music without relying much on its functional tonal harmony. Therefore, the piece stays connected with the music of our times through employing a more liberated tonal language while still bearing close ties with Baroque music.

This decision influenced my selection of the solo instrument for the concerto: the clarinet. The clarinet’s primal existence in the Baroque era was as the chalumeau, and as such was rarely if ever used as a solo instrument in concerti. I started to think, what would masters of the Baroque era compose for the clarinet as the soloist, had they had access to the modern version of the instrument.

Fashioned in the style of a Baroque concerto, the “Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra” follows a three-movement structure of fast-slow-fast. Each movement reflects the unique and characteristic sound-world of Baroque music through reinterpreting the omnipresent, energetic rhythms in the fast movements, recapturing the basso continuo in an imaginative manner, and by using a traditional slow and melodious inner movement. The opening movement is an upbeat, humorous celebration of a motivic figure from which the musical material of the entire movement is generated.

Resembling the slow movement of many solo concerti written in the Baroque era, the second movement has a purely through-composed structure. In this movement the clarinet’s lyrical nature is expansively explored through a nostalgic and expressive melody that is transformed as the movement progresses, leading to a wild tarantella in the final movement. The concerto finishes with the opposing forces of the orchestra and the soloist joining together in a race towards an inexorable climax.

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