Nielsen Shifrin

NIELSEN ◆ SHIFRIN CLARINET CONCERTO CHAMBER MUSIC WITH CLARINET

DE 3527

1 Nielsen ◆ Shifrin Clarinet Concerto Chamber Music with Clarinet

Carl Nielsen (1865 – 1931)

Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57 David Shifrin, solo clarinet Arranged for chamber ensemble by Rene Orth Ryan Reynolds, bassoon William Purvis, horn Six Humorous Bagatelles, Op. 11 Jon Greeney, snare drum Arranged for clarinet and piano by Steven Cohen Benjamin Hoffman, violin Theodore Arm, violin Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano, CNW 66 Jennifer Frautschi, viola Mihai Marica, cello Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and Piano, Op. 2 Curtis Daily, double bass Transcribed for clarinet and piano by David Shifrin Yevgeny Yontov, piano

Serenata in Vano, CNW 69 Total Playing Time: 51:24 NIELSEN ◆ SHIFRIN

CLARINET CONCERTO CHAMBER MUSIC WITH CLARINET

1. Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57 (25:33) Arranged for chamber ensemble by Rene Orth*

Six Humorous Bagatelles, Op. 11 (6:52) Arranged for clarinet and piano by Steven Cohen 2. Hello! Hello! (0:49) David Shifrin, solo clarinet 3. The Spinning Top (0:57) 4. A Short Slow Waltz (1:47) Ryan Reynolds, bassoon (1, 11) 5. The Jumping Jack (0:52) William Purvis, horn (1, 11) 6. The Dolls’ March (1:11) Jon Greeney, snare drum (1) 7. The Musical Clock (0:56) Benjamin Hoffman, violin (1) Theodore Arm, violin (1) 8. Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano, CNW 66 (4:44) Jennifer Frautschi, viola (1) Mihai Marica, cello (1, 11) Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and Piano, Op. 2 (6:24) Curtis Daily, double bass (1, 11) Transcribed for clarinet and piano by David Shifrin Yevgeny Yontov, piano (2–10) 9. Andante con duolo (3:41) 10. Allegretto scherzando (2:43)

11. Serenata in Vano, CNW 69 (8:01)

*World premiere recording of the Clarinet Concerto with chamber ensemble

Total Playing Time: 51:24

2 PROGRAM NOTES for wind instruments: the Wind Quintet, Flute Concerto, and Clarinet Concerto, all f there is a bel canto school of clari- written in the 1920s. net playing, Shifrin is surely its fnest “Iexponent,” the Los Angeles Times wrote, and we agree. David Shifrin made About the Clarinet Concerto his frst recording for the Delos label in 1984: a masterful and beloved recording Nielsen, who was trained as a violinist, en- of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Clari- countered the Copenhagen Wind Quintet net Quintet (DE 2030). Mr. Shifrin has now in 1921 and was so impressed with their recorded twenty albums for Delos, not playing that he composed his Wind Quin- counting another seventeen compilations tet depicting the fve players of the group. and concept albums to which he has con- He planned to expand this portrait with tributed. His recordings include so many fve concertos but only completed two: highlights that it’s diffcult to single out a the Flute Concerto, dedicated to Gilbert few, but Beethoven in New York, with the Jespersen, and the Clarinet Concerto, Septet and Serenade (DE 3177), Chamber Opus 57, dedicated to Aage Oxenvad and Music of Carl Maria von Weber (DE 3194), completed in 1928. Both works are highly music by David Schiff (DE 3058), and the virtuosic and dramatic. Brahms Clarinet Quintet (DE 3066) stand out. As Artistic Director of Chamber Music In its unusual form the Clarinet Concerto Northwest, Mr. Shifrin regularly collabo- resembles Debussy’s Rhapsodie. Instead rates with some of the world’s fnest musi- of the normal three movements, the work cians, many of whom have partnered with unfolds unpredictably in many short, con- him on Delos albums, including this one. trasting episodes that allow the soloist to explore a range of moods barely hinted —David Brin at by the deceptively pastoral opening. Throughout the work an anti-soloist on a menacing snare drum seems to shadow Danish musician and composer Carl Niel- the clarinet like a doppelgänger. The ar- sen (1865–1931) was one of the most dis- rangement of the concerto for chamber tinctive and original composers of the ear- ensemble by American composer Rene ly twentieth century. He is best known for Orth preserves and perhaps even height- his six symphonies and three late works ens the mysterious interplay between

3 two such different instrumental characters. About the Six Humorous Bagatelles and Some listeners have heard this unusual di- Their Arrangement for Clarinet and Piano alogue as a sign of some inner conict either ielsen’s or envad’sor a reec- While I was attending the Juilliard Prep tion of historical events. In either case, the School as a piano student in the mid- clarinet fnally seems to prevail and, in the 1960s, my regular teacher was on leave, beautifully subsiding conclusion, leads the and they brought in a wonderful young music back to a state of serenity. pianist, Peter Weiss. He was an inspira- tion to me and studying with him forever —David Schiff transformed my life.

Peter Weiss introduced me to numerous About the Clarinet Concerto Arrangement works by Carl Nielsen and I became en- amored of Nielsen’s music. As a clarinetist, In the fall of 2013, clarinetist Sam Boutris I knew about the Clarinet Concerto, but commissioned me to arrange Carl Niel- the Six Humorous Bagatelles were the frst sen’s Clarinet Concerto for a chamber pieces of Nielsen’s that I learned. Nielsen group that he could present in concert at had his own children in mind when he the Curtis Institute of Music in the spring. composed this work, from 1894–97; right away I loved their simplicity and childlike I was not very familiar with the piece at nature. Originally for piano solo, I decided the time, but as I delved deeper into the to arrange the pieces for clarinet and pi- project, I grew to love the quirky and play- ano, and frst performed them in open- ful, yet extremely virtuosic qualities of the hagen. The pieces are charming and fun piece. When David Shifrin approached me to play; each has its own unique character about recording the arrangement, I could from the simply put “Hello, Hello” to the not have been more thrilled with the op- ending “Musical Clock.” The arrangement portunity. It is my hope that this arrange- combines lyricism and some virtuosity on ment will provide more opportunities for the clarinet. I dedicate them to Peter Weiss, the piece to be played and shared among in whose memory I transcribed them. audiences everywhere. —Steven Cohen, Professor of Clarinet, —Rene Orth Northwestern University

4 About the Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano clarinet, from the beginning phrase with its interesting harmonic twist to the end- An early piece from about 1881, the Fan- ing phrase of the second Fantasy with its tasy for Clarinet and Piano was written playful interplay between the clarinet and before ielsen’s offcial debut as a com- the piano. fter the frst public perfor- poser with his Op. 1, the Suite for Strings. mance of these pieces in 1891, a review- Nielsen may have had Danish composer er presciently wrote, “One can safely pin Niels Gade in mind when he wrote the great hopes to the future of the young Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano. Gade, the composer.” leading Danish composer of his generation, wrote Four Fantasy Pieces for Clar- —David Brin inet and Piano in the 1860s; and Gade’s friend Robert Schumann also wrote a set of Fantasy Pieces for Clarinet and Piano. About the Serenata in Vano (David Shifrin’s recording of Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces with pianist Carol Rosen- ielsen’s affnity for wind instruments berger is available on the Delos recording and quirky, playful sensibility can be A Brahms/Schumann Soirée, DE 3025.) heard in the short Serenata in Vano, composed in 1914 for a touring chamber en- Perhaps Nielsen also had Gade in mind semble that was also playing Beethoven’s when he wrote, much later, “I wanted Septet, hence the unusual instrumenta- to protest against the typical Danish tion of clarinet, bassoon, horn, cello, and soft smoothing over. I wanted stronger bass. The serenade is a one-movement rhythms and more advanced harmony.” work in three contrasting sections. Niel- sen offered this description: “Serenata in Vano is a humorous trie. irst the gen- About the Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and tlemen play in a somewhat chivalric and Piano, Op. 2 showy manner to lure the fair one out onto the balcony, but she does not ap- Another early composition, from 1889, pear. Then they play in a slightly languor- the Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and Piano is ous strain (Poco adagio), but that hasn’t performed here with the oboe part played any effect either. Since they have played on the clarinet. The composition’s vary- in vain (in vano), they don’t care a straw ing moods are perfectly expressed by the and shufe off home to the strains of the

5 little fnal march, which they play for their sembles as the Emerson, Tokyo, and Guar- own amusement.” neri string quartets, and as a soloist with the symphony orchestras of Philadelphia, —David Schiff Minnesota, Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Mil- waukee, and Detroit as well as many others. A frequent guest at numerous summer festivals, he has appeared at the Santa ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES Fe and La Jolla chamber music festivals, and at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lin- Clarinetist David Shifrin is sought after as coln Center and the Kennedy Center. One an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and cham- of only three wind players to have been ber music performer, and is a three-time awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Prize, Grammy Award nominee. Artistic Director he has also been the recipient of the 2018 of Chamber Music Northwest since 1981 Chamber Music America Bogomolny Na- and of the Chamber Music Society of Lin- tional Service Award, the Concert Artists coln Center from 1992 to 2004, Mr. Shifrin Guild Virtuoso award, and the Yale Uni- has appeared with such distinguished en- versity Cultural Leadership Citation. The

6 Delos recording by Mr. Shifrin and the Mostly or more than twentyfve years, bassist Mozart Festival Orchestra of the Mozart Curtis Daily has focused on the histori- Clarinet Concerto (DE 3020) received cal performance practice of Baroque and the Record of the Year award from Ste- Classical music. Principal bassist of the reo Review. A professor of music at Yale Portland Baroque Orchestra, he is also a University, David Shifrin has recorded for founding member of the Seattle Baroque the Delos, Nonesuch, Arabesque, Angel, Orchestra. In addition, he performs with Deutsche Grammophon, and CRI labels. early music groups and festivals across For more information, please visit www. North America. In the world of modern davidshifrin.com. performance, Mr. Daily has performed with the Honolulu Symphony, jazz groups, and rock bands, as well as with Chamber Violinist Theodore Arm has appeared Music Northwest for many years. He was throughout the United States, Canada, a member of the Oregon Bach Festival Or- Europe, and Asia as soloist, recitalist, and chestra for the Grammy-winning record- guest artist with such organizations as the ing of Credo by Krzysztof Penderecki on Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Hannsler Records, and is also heard on re- the Group for Contemporary Music, and the cordings for Virgin Classics, Koch, Centaur, Boston Chamber Music Society. A member and Sub-Pop Records. of the acclaimed chamber group Tashi since 1976, he has performed with Lukas Foss, Chick Corea, and Gary Burton. Mr. Arm is Two-time Grammy nominee and recip- also a favorite with summer chamber music ient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, festival audiences, and has been a regular violinist and violist Jennifer Frautschi artist at the Sarasota Music Festival and has garnered worldwide acclaim as an Music from Angel Fire. He has recorded for adventurous musician with a remarkably Delos, RCA, Koch, Musical Heritage Society, wide-ranging repertoire. In the 2015–16 and ECM. Theodore Arm is an emeritus pro- season Ms. Frautschi appeared as solo- fessor at the University of Connecticut and ist with the Boston Philharmonic and the a 2010 recipient of the University’s Lifetime Austin, Boise, New Jersey, Norwalk, Pas- Achievement Award from the School of Fine adena, Pensacola, Toledo, and Valdosta Arts. He holds a doctorate from The Juilliard Symphonies. Highlights of recent seasons School, where he studied with Christine De- include performing the world premiere thier and Joseph Fuchs. of James Stephenson’s Violin Concerto, a

7 piece written for her, with the Minnesota numerous concerts and venues, including Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, and the Bar- Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. In ber Concerto with James Conlon conduct- 2006 he won a position in the Orquesta ing the Orchestra of the Teatro di San Car- Sinfonica de Xalapa in Veracruz, Mexico, lo in Naples. She performs regularly at the where he performed as a full-time section Caramoor Center for the Arts, where she percussionist until the summer of 2008. was frst invited by ndr revin to play as He joined the Oregon Symphony in the a Rising Star at the age of eighteen, during fall of 2010. her freshman year at Harvard. Ms. Frauts- chi has premiered new works by Barba- ra White, Mason Bates, Oliver Knussen, Italian-American violinist Benjamin Hoff- Krzysztof Penderecki, Michael Hersch, and man was selected as a fellow for the New others. Her most recent releases are with York Philharmonic’s Global Academy pianist John Blacklow on Albany Records. Program. As a chamber musician he has played alongside mentors Peter Frankl, For more about Jennifer Frautschi, please Wolfram Christ, Jorja Fleezanis, and Gary visit her website, www.jenniferfrautschi.com. Hoffman, and recently performed Aaron Jay Kernis’s Mozart en Route and Hin- demith’s Kammermusik No. 1 at Carnegie Principal timpanist of the Oregon Sym- Hall. He also performs with his moth- phony, Jon Greeney is also an adjunct er, father, and sister as part of the piano professor of percussion studies at Port- quartet Onibatan. As a soloist, he enjoys land State University. He holds a Bachelor performing music ranging from Vivaldi of Music Degree in performance from the to Bach, Mozart, and Korngold, as well Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins as contemporary music with orchestra. University and a Master of Music Degree He recently premiered a double concer- in performance from Cleveland State Uni- to by his father, Joel Hoffman, with his versity. His teachers at Peabody included sister as the cello soloist in the National percussion virtuosos Robert van Sice and Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing. Mr. Jonathan Haas, and at Cleveland State he Hoffman began studying the violin at age studied with Tom Freer of the Cleveland four under his mother’s tutelage and con- Orchestra. Mr. Greeney has performed tinued his studies with Gabriel Pegis of as an orchestral percussionist and tim- the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Latica panist as well as a chamber musician in Honda-Rosenberg at the Hochschule für

8 Musik in Freiburg, Germany, and Alexan- abroad as a horn soloist, chamber musi- der Kerr at Indiana University. He is cur- cian, conductor, and educator. He has par- rently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts ticipated in numerous premieres including Degree at Yale University, where his princi- horn concertos by Peter Lieberson, Bayan pal studies are with ni avafan. Northcott, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Paul Lansky. He is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica won Luke’s, the Yale Brass Trio, and the Triton frst prie in the Dr. uis Sigall nternation- Horn Trio, as well as an emeritus mem- al Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile, and ber of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. in he was awarded the frst prie in Mr. Purvis is also a frequent guest artist the Irving M. Klein International Compe- with the Chamber Music Society of Lin- tition. He has collaborated with artists coln Center and the Boston Chamber including ni avafan, ihae ee, eter Music Society. A Grammy Award-winner, ranl, ndr atts, and dgar eyer at he has recorded extensively on numerous festivals such as Chamber Music North- labels including Deutsche Grammophon, west, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and Sony Classical, Naxos, Koch, and Bridge. the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Marica is a Currently he is Professor in the Practice founding member of the award-winning of Horn and Chamber Music at the Yale Amphion String Quartet and a former School of Music, where he also serves as member of The Chamber Music Society of coordinator of winds and brasses and as Lincoln Center’s CMS Two Program, which director of the Yale Collection of Musical identifes and nourishes a select num- Instruments. ber of individuals and ensembles chosen from an international pool of candidates through highly competitive auditions. Mr. Ryan Reynolds chose the bassoon in ffth Marica studied with Aldo Parisot at the grade under the impression that it pro- Yale School of Music, where he earned a duced only one note and would therefore Master of Music Degree and an Artist Di- be the easiest instrument to play. His dis- ploma. appointment upon discovering that the range of the bassoon is actually three- and-a-half octaves quickly turned to fas- William Purvis pursues a multifacet- cination and intrigue. Mr. Reynolds is cur- ed career both in the United States and rently the Graduate Teaching Assistant for

9 the Florida State University bassoon stu- dio, and has performed with the Traverse and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestras in Michigan. In 2009, he toured Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with the Sonrisa Wind Quintet as an artist in residence for the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and in 2012 he was a member of the Interlochen En- semble, a wind quintet comprised entirely of Interlochen alumni. Mr. Reynolds is currently pursuing his DMA degree at Florida State University under the tutelage of Jeff Keesecker.

fnalist in the rthur ubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Yevgeny Yontov has established him- self as one of the most promising Israeli pianists of his generation. A founding member of icarus Quartet, a two piano/ two percussion chamber group, he is also fragments by Schubert. Mr. Yontov be- artistic director of The Second Movement gan his musical studies at the age of six Chamber Concert Series in New Haven, with Adela Umansky, and later received Connecticut. his Bachelor of Music Degree summa cum laude from the Buchmann-Mehta School As a chamber musician, Mr. Yontov has of Music at Tel Aviv University, where he appeared in Israel, Europe, the Unit- studied with Arie Vardi. He then moved to ed States, Canada, and South Ameri- the United States to study with Boris Ber- ca, in venues that include Carnegie Hall man at the Yale School of Music, where he and the Kennedy Center. His debut CD, received his M.M. Degree. He is currently Schubert: Piano Variations, was released pursuing his D.M.A. degree at Yale. To read on Naxos Records in 2017, and includes more about Yevgeny Yontov, please visit seldom-performed piano variations and his website at http://yevgenyyontov.com.

10 Producer: Matthew LeFevre

Recording engineers: For the Clarinet Concerto and Seranata in Vano, Rod Evenson. For the Six Humorous Bagatelles, Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano, and Fantasy Pieces: Matthew LeFevre .

Editing and mastering: Matthew LeFevre Resident engineer: Matthew Snyder Booklet editing: David Brin, Lindsay Koob, and Anne Maley Graphic design and layout: Lonnie Kunkel

The Clarinet Concerto and Seranata in Vano were recorded live at Chamber Music Northwest in Kaul Auditorium, Reed College, Portland, OR on July 21, 2016

The Six Humorous Bagatelles, Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano, and Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and Piano were recorded at Morse Recital Hall, Sprague Hall, Yale School of Music, New Haven, CT on Septem- ber 26, 2017 (Bagatelles) and November 22, 2016 (Fantasies).

Mr. Shifrin performs on "MoBa" clarinets made of cocobola wood by Backun Musical Services, www. bacunmusicalservices.com and on gre synthetic reeds.

This recording was made possible with help from Chamber Music Northwest, Backun Musical Ser- vices, and by a grant from the Yale School of Music.

Special thanks to Peter Bilotta and Rob Whipple of Chamber Music Northwest; Joel Jaffe of Backun Musical Services; and Matthew LeFevre and Dean Robert Blocker of Yale School of Music.

The manuscript on the back cover is from Nielsen’s original score of the Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and Piano.

We are grateful to Tara Helen O'Connor for her extraordinary help in coaching and producing the performance recording of Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto. —David Shifrin

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