Ah, the clarinet! George Gershwin, the jazz genius who in the
1920s decided to put a swinging stamp on western classical music,
recognized the potential of the clarinet at a time when most ragtime
and novelty numbers starred the piano. He kicked off the Rhapsody
in Blue with a now-legendary clarinet glissando and peppered
in three or four more great solos later on in the work. Gershwin
enthusiasts should seek out a recording from New Orleans of the
Preservation Hall Jazz Band playing its own version of the classic
Gershwin song “Summertime” – featuring a simply unbelievable clarinet
solo by Dr. Michael White.
Now
composer and opera conductor Franck Villard has arranged some
choice Gershwin works for the combination of clarinet and
string orchestra. And the program sounds like a Greatest Hits
album: we have the bluesy slow movement from the Piano
Concerto, a choice five-minute excerpt from An American
in Paris, and the Three Preludes (originally for
piano solo). Rounding out the album is a massive suite extracted
from the opera Porgy and Bess.
Unfortunately,
my enthusiasm for the music at hand is not matched by a similar
love for these arrangements and performances. Too frequently
the string orchestra’s sonority just cannot capture the full,
rich sound of Gershwin’s orchestrations, and too often the
solo clarinet part sounds awkward or unidiomatic. Even more
unfortunately, clarinetist Michel Lethiec’s tone is never
smooth and mellow when he is given the chance to be squawky
and shrill instead.
The
works that come off best are the shorter pieces. The brief
extract from An American in Paris is very well-chosen
indeed, and here clarinetist Michel Lethiec really makes the
most of the gorgeous melody he is given (played by the trumpet
in the original version). That said, I could imagine more
wit and jazzy flair in the playing, and Lethiec’s near-total
aversion to vibrato occasionally grates on the nerves. In
jazz, clarinet players are unafraid to deploy vibrato, taboo
though it may be for the more classically-minded. Listen to
the opening minute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s recording
of Rhapsody in Blue, for instance (James Levine conducts),
or nearly any recording of American jazz musicians, such as
the aforementioned Dr. Michael White or the legends Benny
Goodman and Artie Shaw. Lethiec gives in sometimes, but too
often his sustained notes without vibrato become difficult
for my ears to take.
The
best performance, and best transcription, on the disc is also
the last: an arrangement of the Three Preludes for
solo piano. Much to my surprise, these arrangements really
work, and the performance – especially the double bass playing
with relish in the odd-numbered preludes – is quite enjoyable.
I could imagine a slightly more sensitive rendition of the
clarinet line in the gorgeous second prelude, and the engineers
need not have captured the instrument’s clicking sounds, but
this is nevertheless an atmospheric performance. Also worth
noting is the bluesy slow movement to the Piano Concerto,
which fares very well here.
Unfortunately
the big item on the menu – a forty-five minute suite extracted
from Porgy and Bess – is not as impressive. Villard,
in writing this arrangement, seems to have recognized that
much of the opera is not at all suited to the medium of clarinet
and string orchestra, and as a result, the hurricane scenes
are entirely gone, “I got plenty of nothin’” and “It ain’t
necessarily so” only make brief appearances, some material
from early on is recycled near the end to hide the absence
of forward development, and, most disappointingly, “I’m on
my way,” the rousing finale of the opera, is nowhere to be
found. But when I complain that some of my favorite parts
of the opera are missing, my grumble is in much the same spirit
as the old joke, “The food here is terrible, and the portions
are too small.” The music here isn’t terrible, and the portion
is large – forty-five minutes – but the whole thing is very
unsatisfying.
In
the initial numbers, particularly “Jasbo Brown’s Blues,” the
orchestra actually plays with more idiomatic, jazzy expression
than does Lethiec. He has his moments later, but he also plays
with inappropriate bravado in the mournful funeral chant “Gone,
gone, gone.”.
Maybe
the best way of expressing my feelings toward this album is
to say that listening to it should have been fun, but was
not. I had hoped to kick back and enjoy a light, virtuosic
spin on Gershwin favorites performed with a smile. Instead
playing this album multiple times for review purposes felt
a little like a chore. If Michel Lethiec was more in-tune
with the jazz idiom and more willing to play with vibrato,
and if he had a deeper, richer clarinet tone, perhaps this
would have been a cheerier album - and a cheerier review.
The playing of the Finnish orchestra, under Patrick Gallois,
is generally excellent, barring a few intonation problems
in Porgy and Bess.
As
a part of the Naxos Digital imprint, this album is currently
only available for download at the website Classicsonline,
where it sells for rather less than the price of a physical
compact disc. If you are still interested in hearing some
of the better portions of this album, I recommend you choose
to download the tracks from the Piano Concerto and
Three Preludes individually. If you just want to hear
a great Gershwin tune given an unquestionably idiomatic and
indeed mesmerizing performance on the clarinet, pick up the
Preservation Hall Jazz Band album Songs of New Orleans,
and listen to Dr. Michael White’s rendition of “Summertime.”
White’s interpretation of this standard is so astonishing,
or perhaps a better word is miraculous, that I daresay you
will never listen to a clarinet the same way again.
Brian Reinhart
8.570939
