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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1685–1750 1 Chromatic Fantasia arr. solo clarinet and Fugue BWV 903 arr. clarinet, marimba and bandoneon by R. Stoltzman 15.51 2 Chaconne arr. solo marimba by M. Stoltzman 16.51 from Partita in D minor for solo violin BWV 1004 MAURICE RAVEL 1875–1937 3 Pavane pour une infante défunte arr. clarinet and marimba 6.47 WILLIAM THOMAS MCKINLEY 1938–2015 4 Mostly Blues Nos. 2, 8 & 12 for clarinet and marimba 6.10 JOHN ZORN b.1953 5 Palimpsest for clarinet and marimba 4.44 ASTOR PIAZZOLLA 1921–1992 6 Tango–Étude No.5 arr. solo clarinet 2.30 7 Fuga y misterio arr. clarinet, marimba, bandoneon and bass 6.10 59.04 RICHARD STOLTZMAN clarinet MIKA STOLTZMAN marimba HÉCTOR DEL CURTO bandoneón PEDRO GIRAUDO double bass The Stoltzmans – Clarinet and Marimba ‘The combination of clarinet and marimba has a mysterious beauty,’ says Richard Stoltzman. ‘Partly it’s because both instruments generate music from pieces of wood, even though in very different ways. One involves blowing against a reed, the other striking with mallets – but together they create a wonderful musical mystery.’ The renowned clarinetist, a two-time Grammy Award winner, could equally well be talking about his relationship with his wife, the marimba player Mika Stoltzman. For all relationships have an element of mystery, sometimes light and sometimes dark, and it was during an experience of the latter kind – a painful divorce – that he began working with Mika. She had been a long-time admirer of the American’s work via his recordings and had previously invited him to perform at a music festival in her small hometown of Amakusa in Japan. Later, in 2007, they worked together in the USA on a recording of Variations on Goldberg’s Theme and Dreams by Richard’s son. Soon his obvious musical rapport with Mika flourished into a romantic relationship. ‘She was there for me,’ he says with affection. ‘It was a messed-up, depressing time, and Mika was sensitive to that. Having played so well together, I knew we could trust each other.’ ‘Absolutely,’ says Mika. ‘It’s about trust.’ The fruit of that relationship can be heard on the beautiful collection of tracks here, which all speak of renewal and regeneration in one form or another. There are arrangements of well-known masterpieces, new works which give an ear-opening spin on familiar ideas, and innovative transcriptions. Perhaps the key to the collection is contained in the most recent work, Palimpsest, written by jazz/classical performer and composer John Zorn (born 1953). A good friend to the couple, Zorn wrote Palimpsest for Richard’s 75th birthday concert in New York in 2018. A palimpsest is defined as a page of ancient manuscript from which the text has been erased (often only partially) in order to be reused for further text: and thus in a poetic sense the term suggests an irruption of the past into the present. ‘That’s what you get here,’ says Richard. ‘Mika begins by playing quite tonal music, and then the clarinet jumps in with something abstract and arrhythmic, with crazy leaping intervals, almost as if Ornette Coleman had stepped into the room, and it keeps in conflict with the steady metre of the “old manuscript” underneath Mika’s part. It’s really fun to play, and it has been a surprise hit with audiences.’ Another composer who knew the couple well was William Thomas McKinley (1938–2015). Richard’s friendship with him had begun at Yale in the 1960s, when they were both students there, and later McKinley had welcomed Mika with equal warmth. She instantly suggested to her husband that they should commission him to write for marimba and clarinet. When McKinley accepted the challenge, Mika asked if it could be ‘something jazzy, and something I could groove to, with a steady rhythm.’ The composer turned up about a month later with 22 pieces called Mostly Blues (numbers 2, 8 and 12 are presented here), causing some consternation. ‘We can’t afford to pay you for all that!’ cried the couple in alarm. But their friend didn’t mind: he’d enjoyed the challenge for its own sake. ‘He based every piece on the interval of the minor third, which is found in the blues scale. It’s incredible – each piece gives you a quick glimpse of a world which is so much wider than I’d imagined, totally based on blues,’ says Richard. The ‘meat’ of the album – in terms of length, and perhaps emotional impact, too – lies in two arrangements of works by Bach (1685–1750). 4 It is said (perhaps apocryphally) that Bach composed the monumental Chaconne after he had returned home from a journey to find that his wife Maria had died in his absence. ‘In my opinion his sorrow is best expressed in the broad arpeggio passage in the latter part of the first section, and playing this always brings tears to my eyes,’ says Mika. ‘I think the composer’s grief eases a little after this, as if he’s remembering sweet days with Maria. The last section is like a reminiscence – and unlike the gloomy beginning, I think it ends as a kind of vigorous hymn to life.’ The programme also includes a favourite piece of Richard’s, the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, the latter part of which also includes a bandoneon in the arrangement. What is it that makes Bach’s music so adaptable, especially with a jazzy inflection, I ask. ‘It’s simply that Bach wrote so much of his music as dance music, and that he was also a great improviser – he had a groove!’ says Richard. ‘He didn’t stipulate if a piece had to be played on one instrument or another, and that’s a hallmark of jazz. Whatever you play it on, it works.’ Mika’s arrangement of Ravel’s (1875–1937) Pavane pour une infante défunte begins with soft, hazy chords from the marimba. ‘And because of the way Mika continues underneath, I can freely play with the written melody of Ravel, with no restrictions on my expression,’ says Richard. ‘It’s an arrangement that always touches people: I can tell when I look out into the audience that they’re all going into the music in their own way.’ The couple also perform two works by the Argentinian classical/tango composer Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992). The Fuga y misterio constitutes the fifth scene of his tango-chamber opera María de Buenos Aires, in which the eponymous heroine wanders through the streets of the city. ‘It’s got everything,’ says Richard. ‘It’s got the groove, the feeling of improvisation, a change of mood into Latin blues, and an amazing Bach- like fugue – but 300 years after Bach. And we loved adding the bandoneon and bass to our little duo for this track: we live and thrive with additional friends. And it feels perfect to play, as if Piazzolla had actually written it for this combination. I like to think that if he’d heard it, he would have written it for clarinet and marimba.’ Another work by Piazzolla is the Tango–Étude No.5, originally composed for either violin or flute. ‘But it’s also perfect for the range of the clarinet,’ says Richard, ‘and has a great feeling and a nice spirit about it. I usually only play it as an encore piece, but Mika told me I really should record it.’ He pauses. ‘And I always do what she tells me.’ C Warwick Thompson 5 Die Stoltzmans – Klarinette und Marimba „Die Kombination von Klarinette und Marimbaphon besitzt eine geheimnisvolle Schönheit“, so Richard Stoltzman. „Zum Teil liegt es daran, dass beide Instrumente mit Holzstücken Musik erzeugen, wenn auch auf sehr unterschiedliche Art und Weise. Die eine besteht darin, gegen ein Rohrblatt zu blasen, die andere bringt Holz mit Schlägeln in Schwingung – doch gemeinsam erzeugen sie ein wundervolles musikalisches Mysterium.“ Der bekannte Klarinettist, der zweifacher Grammy-Preisträger ist, könnte genauso gut über die Beziehung zu seiner Frau, der Marimba- Spielerin Mika Stoltzman, sprechen. Denn alle Beziehungen haben ein mysteriöses Element, manchmal hell und manchmal dunkel. Und während einer Erfahrung der dunklen Art – einer schmerzhaften Scheidung – begann Richard Stoltzman mit Mika zu arbeiten. Sie war seit langem eine Bewunderin seiner musikalischen Aktivitäten, die sie durch seine Aufnahmen kannte, und hatte ihn bereits zuvor einmal zu einem Musikfestival in ihrer kleinen Heimatstadt Amakusa in Japan eingeladen. Später, 2007, arbeiteten sie in den USA gemeinsam an einer Aufnahme der Variationen über Goldbergs Thema und Träume, die Richards Sohn machte. Richards musikalische Beziehung zu Mika entwickelte sich bald zu einer romantischen Partnerschaft. „Sie war für mich da“, sagt er mit Zuneigung. „Ich befand mich damals in eine konfusen, deprimierenden Phase, und Mika spürte das. Nachdem wir so gut zusammen gespielt hatten, wusste ich, dass wir uns gegenseitig vertrauen konnten. “„Absolut“, ergänzt Mika, „es geht um Vertrauen.“ Die Früchte dieser Beziehung sind in dieser schönen Zusammenstellung einzelner Stücke zu hören, die alle in der einen oder anderen Form von Erneuerung und Regeneration handeln. Es sind hier Arrangements bekannter Meisterwerke, neue Werke, die bekannte Ideen in frischem Gewand zu Gehör bringen, und innovative Transkriptionen enthalten. Vielleicht ist der Schlüssel zu dieser Zusammenstellung in dem neuesten Werk Palimpsest zu finden, das vom Jazz- und Klassik-Komponisten John Zorn (geb. 1953) geschrieben wurde. Zorn, ein guter Freund des Paares, schrieb Palimpsest 2018 für das Konzert zu Richards 75. Geburtstag in New York. Ein Palimpsest wird als eine Seite einer alten Handschrift definiert, von der der Text (manchmal nur teilweise) abgewaschen wurde, um für weitere Texte verwendet zu werden: Und in einem poetischen Sinn suggeriert der Begriff einen Einbruch der Vergangenheit in die Gegenwart.

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