This is now the sixth CD published by Naxos given over entirely
to the music of Polish-born composer Aleksander Tansman, and
the second of his clarinet works - a disc of chamber works for
the instrument was well received here.
In a sense, in fact, this is a further volume of the same -
the Silesian Chamber Orchestra consists of only twelve strings,
and all three works featured here were written for chamber orchestra.
The Clarinet Concerto is dedicated to the celebrated French
clarinettist Louis Cahuzac (1880-1960), who gave its premiere
in 1959. The first of three movements, marked Introduction and
Allegro, opens very laggardly but springs to life with the entrance
of the clarinet. The highlight of the work is the slow second
movement, a short, very lyrical Arioso, which features a fleeting
but beautiful duet with the oboe. Throughout the movement the
orchestra is very subdued, and in fact is silent for the opening
of the finale, which begins unusually with a cadenza for the
clarinet, before launching into a jaunty, almost klezmer-like
Danza Popolare, played Vivace with some virtuosic demands made
of the soloist. Alas, the work ends all too soon.
The clarinet-oboe duo idea of the Concerto's final movement
is revisited with élan in the six-movement neo-Classical-cum-neo-Baroque
Concertino, which was written in 1952, the year Tansman's wife
was diagnosed with the cancer that eventually killed her. On
the whole, the music of the Concertino betrays little of the
emotional turmoil Tansman must have been feeling, beginning
with the opening Poulenc-like Overture, which is bursting with
sunshine. The second movement, marked Andante sostenuto, is
more chordally mysterious than downcast, and it soon yields
to a Molto vivace Scherzo which reprises the jollity of the
Overture. Tansman's true frame of mind is perhaps revealed at
last in the fourth movement, which is a slow Elegy written -
markedly? - for strings alone. The Elegy is followed by a Canon,
which starts off with solo strings extending the lugubrious
mood, before the clarinet and oboe finally reappear, albeit
both wistful - only for them to stop suddenly and the Elegy
return to moving effect for the final two minutes for strings
only. Yet for the brief finale, marked Allegro deciso, optimistic
normality is resumed and the music picks up first the mood,
and then the theme of the Overture.
One surprising fact about both the Concerto and the Concertino
is that this is the first time they have been recorded - a shame
on clarinettists and music labels everywhere, but credit to
Naxos and the performers on this CD for recognising this fine
music and recording it for posterity.
The Six Movements for Strings was premiered in 1963. The title
is a little misleading - as the liner notes explain, these are
not six independent pieces bound together to make an opus, but
"six movements that together form a cycle whose strong sense
of unity derives from a series of deftly conceived internal
relationships." The work begins enigmatically, with an Introduction
marked Andante misterioso, and segues into an Allegro giocoso
that is muscly, brisk and often tonally nebulous, this latter
a recurring theme of the work as a whole. The short Dirge is
less pessimistic and more colourful than its title suggests.
The Perpetuum mobile third movement, marked Vivo con fuoco,
is a firecracker of a piece, full of virtuosic techniques, driving
rhythms and more polytonality. The riddles of the Introduction
return for the spooky Intermezzo, which is followed by a pressing
Scherzino in which tonality is yet again obfuscated. The last
movement of this superb work - modernist in many ways, yet still
attractive to the general ear - is an exciting chromatic Fugue,
which brings the piece to a satisfying, and once again sudden,
end.
In the Six Movements the Silesian Chamber Orchestra under Mirosław
Błaszczyk get a well-deserved turn in the limelight. The
Orchestra was founded by Polish conductor Karol Stryja in 1981,
with members drawn from the Silesian Philharmonic, and it is
fitting that they gave this sterling performance, their first
for Naxos, in the Karol Stryja Hall in Katowice, where Stryja
died in 1998. Laurent Decker and especially Jean-Marc Fessard
- who was also the clarinettist on Naxos 8.570235 (review link
above) - likewise deserve praise for their own fine performances.
The quality of sound is excellent, the booklet nicely detailed,
and the picture on the cover is ... the picture on the cover.
A quality disc for a quality composer.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Jean-Marc Fessard (clarinet) 
