Jacques-Jules Bouffil (1783-1868)
Clarinet Chamber Music
Duo for Clarinet and Piano, Op.4
Overture to Boieldieu's La Dame Blanche, arr. for clarinet duo
Trio (for three clarinets), Op.8, No.1 (1821)
Trio (for three clarinets), Op.7, No 1 (1817)
Trio (for three clarinets), Op.7, No.2 (1817)
Luigi Magistrelli, Laura Magistrelli, Cristina Romanò (clarinets)
Claudia Bracco (piano)
rec. 2021, Santo Stefano Ticini, Italy
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 96611 [71]
I think I first came across Bouffil's name in the early 1970s when my friends included some postgraduate music students who were studying the wind quintets of Antoine Reicha – Bouffil having been the original clarinettist in those Quintets. Bouffil is absent from all the works of musical reference I have been able to consult. He has no entry in New Grove (at least not in the printed edition – currently I have no access to the online version).
So far as I have been able to discover, the most reliable source of accurate biographical information about Bouffil is Andrea Steele's Doctoral Dissertaion, A Comprehensive Biography of Jacques-Jules Bouffil (1783-1868) with a New Performance Edition of his No. 2, Op. 7 (University of Arizona, 2017). Fortunately, this is readily available online. Doctor Steele's researches have corrected several errors in earlier (brief) accounts of Bouffil.
Steele shows that Bouffil was born in Muret (in the region of Haute-Garonne in south-western France) on May 14, 1783. He is known to have been admitted to the Paris Conservatoire in May of 1802 and to have studied clarinet and harmony there until at least 1809. Between August 24th 1805 and February 25th1806 he was released from his studies at the Conservatoire to join the army, becoming a member of the musical corps of the National Guard. His teachers at the Conservatoire included the clarinettist and composer Xavier Lefèvre (1763-1829) and Charles Duvernoy who, as well as being a composer was principal clarinet in the orchestra of the Paris Opéra Comique. From 1809 until 1824 Bouffil played alongside Duvernoy in that orchestra, before succeeding him as principal clarinet in 1825; he held this position until 1831.
In 1818 and 1819, a group including Bouffil (the other members were flautist Joseph Guillou, oboist Gustav Vogt, horn player Louis Dauprat and bassoonist Antoine Henry) gave performances of Antoine Reicha's innovatory wind quintets in a series of subscription concerts at the Théâtre Italien, also known as the Salle Favart. Their success was such that further performances followed in the early 1820s.
Steele is able to show that Bouffil left the Opéra Comique in 1831, but continued playing professionally in Paris until at least 1835. He appears to have left the capital in 1843 and taken up residence in Toulouse which city was, perhaps not coincidentally, quite close to his place of birth. In Toulouse he taught and was associated with the city's École de Musique. Bouffil died in Toulouse in November 1868.
Bouffil's contemporary fame was primarily as a performer – his playing was praised by both Spohr and Reicha for example – and a teacher. But on the evidence of this CD (I am not familiar with any other recordings of his music) he was a far from negligible composer, even if his works were perhaps only likely to appeal to those with a particular interest in the clarinet. Andrea Steele, in the Dissertation cited earlier, quotes (p.13) praise for Bouffil from one such 'specialist', the English clarinettist Pamela Weston (1921-2009), “His compositions for clarinet duet and trio are some of the
most worthwhile written for the medium. They are full-scale works of considerable substance and were doubtless intended for performance by professionals” (Pamela Weston, More Clarinet Virtuosi of the Past (London, 1977, p.57).
Writing as someone who could not remotely be described as a specialist, I am happy to endorse that judgement. During several hearings of this disc I have enjoyed every one of the five works on it. Particular highlights include the perceptively witty (and instrumentally sensitive) transcription of Boieldieu's overture to his opera La Dame Blanche (loosely based on two novels by Walter Scott – Guy Mannering and The Monastery) and two of the trios, Op.7, No.2 and Op.8, No.1.
Boieldieu's La Dame Blanche was premiered at the Opéra-Comique in December 1825 when Bouffil was a member of the orchestra there. One wonders at what stage in the experience of rehearsal and repeated performance Bouffil was struck by the possibility of making a transcription for three clarinets. What is immediately clear on first listening to this piece is that it is the work of someone with a thorough and intimate knowledge of the clarinet. The whole arrangement is highly adroit, and there are some fascinating and delightful sonorities – especially in the slow central section of the overture.
The Trio, Op.8 No.1, contains many engaging passages of instrumental interplay amongst the three clarinets. It opens with a brief introduction (marked andante) which soon gathers pace and becomes a sprightly allegro. Once again, the relatively uncommon instrumentation is handled with striking insight and inventiveness throughout. The second movement (‘Allegretto’) is a sure-footed, sophisticated piece. The 'Menuetto and Trio; which follows is the most 'classical' (which word is here, in effect, a synonym for 'Viennese') movement of Op.8 No.1's four movements. The closing Allegro has impressive authority. Everything is lucid and well-balanced, firmly 'argued' without being over-simple or dogmatic. The whole Trio makes it clear that Bouffil is not only a composer who writes well for his own instrument – he is, in a wider sense, a sophisticated musician. This Trio would, in itself, be a clear demonstration of the claim by Pamela Weston quoted earlier.
Further vivid evidence in support of that claim comes in the work which closes the disc – the Trio Op.7, No.2 – perhaps the finest work in this programme. Here, in one of the movements, the 'Minuetto and Trio', Bouffil unexpectedly uses one of the three clarinets as a clear leading voice supported by the other two clarinets. The lead role is taken by Laura Magistrelli, who plays superbly and is well supported by Luigi Magistrelli and Christina Romanò.
The Trio's four movements – 'Allegro non troppo' [4:58], 'Adagio cantabile' [3:54], 'Minuetto e Trio' [3:10] and 'Allegro non troppo' [5:46] – indicate a degree of structural symmetry which coexists with the 'romantic' expression evident (particularly) in the two inner movements. Over the years since I first knew his name, I have occasionally heard music by Bouffil, without it making any great impression on me; none of it prepared me for the subtlety and beauty of the music on this disc.
The disc's booklet reproduces The Young Gardener by François Boucher (1703-1770). Although the painter was in no sense a contemporary of the composer, Boucher's image, with its galante sophistication and elegance complements Bouffil's work very aptly since both are characterised by a seemingly 'easy' technical assurance and delicacy of touch which yet suggest weightier and deeper issues.
Glyn Pursglove
Published: November 18, 2022
