This was TFO playing as a tightly integrated unit, completely in control, yet sounding relaxed and almost improvisational. Scored for a large battery of percussion and strings (no woodwinds or brass), the music cut through the hall like a knife. The former was a scaled down orchestra under the baton of Music Director Michael Francis at Mahaffey Theater in a delirious account of Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite.

Part of what made them noteworthy was their contrast: one a barrage of coordinated musicianship that forced me back in my seat, the other a quiet conversation that had me leaning forward into the mix. Here the intervals seem more normal, but the mood is even more tragic than the opening movement, as the clarinet screams in panic into its high register and bleats in helplessness.It doesn’t require a lot of evidence to prove The Florida Orchestra performs at a high level, always consistent and well-oiled, whether during a Masterworks program, a pops event or an intimate chamber concert.īut evidence in abundance jumped off the stage in two recent performances just four days apart, and both struck me as nothing less than, well, remarkable listening experiences. The concluding fast movement explodes into action like a Shostakovich work, full of bitterness and protest. There are also unusual color effects, such as a 'brrrr' sound produced while executing a trill. These, and short glissandos, intensify the air of tragedy that is prevalent here. The opening slow movement is built on a tragic rising and falling half-step interval, but very soon the clarinetist, through unorthodox fingerings and note bending with the lips produces intervals (so-called quarter tones or third tones) that are outside the common twelve-note chromatic set. It is only about six and a half minutes long, and is a fascinating exploration of effects that were scarcely considered possible on the instrument. This solo sonata is regarded as one of the keystones of the modernist post-serial clarinet literature of the last third of the twentieth century, and has exerted a strong influence on much subsequent music for the instrument.

He was, therefore, frequently in disfavor with the ruling powers in Soviet music, for that reason losing opportunities to get his music performed. Edison Denisov (1929 - 1996) was one of the courageous group of Soviet composers who came to artistic maturity in the 1960s and persisted in writing unusual or even frankly avant-garde compositions.

Poulenc clarinet sonata program notes