Music
for Clarinet in B-flat and Orchestra, op. 96b (1993/1995)
Orchestra:
2.2.2.2 - 3.3.2.1 - Timpani, Percussion. <2>, Strings First
performance : June 30, 2000, Cairo, Cairo Opera House
Mohamed Hamdy / Cairo Opera Orchestra / Jacek Kraszewski
Duration:
20 Minutes Publisher:
N. Simrock Hamburg-London (Boosey & Hawkes) Piano
reduction: EE 5290 / ISMN M-2211-2075-5 The
"Music for Clarinet in B-flat and Orchestra", op.
96c has the character of an instrumental ballade with rhapsodic elements, in which
the soloist takes, so to speak, the role of the narrator. This work in one movement
is subdivided into seven sections of contrasting dynamic and rhythmical structure.
The piece opens with an eight-part sound, unfolding like a fan, which is
re-used several times in the course of the piece to separate sections. A diatonic,
lyrical theme in the solo instrument develops to a first climax. The second section
is an allegro over rhythmically beating basses, opening into an orchestral tutti.
The Gregorian hymn "Pange, lingua, gloriosi" is cited in the
third section, to be then combined in a fourth section with the beating allegro
of the second. In the next formal section, the complete material of the work
- whose beginning is clearly signalled by the abrupt breaking-off of a rising
passage - is reworked in a kind of development with short orchestral and solo
episodes. A last build-up leads into a cadenza for the soloist, which forms the
penultimate section. In the coda, the plainchant motif undergoes jazz-like transformations;
then a 16-part chord is built up, out of which the Clarinet emerges with its final
musical word - with a B-A-C-H (B-Flat - A - C - B) motif of which hints had previously
been audible. A reserved E-Flat chord with a fading upwards glissando closes the
work in an extreme pianissimo. Bertold
Hummel |