CLARINET CLASSICS AT RIVERDALE

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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Most of us are fairly familiar with the large-scale overtures of Carl Maria von Weber – Oberon, Euryanthe, Der Freischütz… – and barely acquainted with most of his chamber music. So here, with the release of the lovely DELOS 3561 CD CLARINET CLASSICS AT RIVERDALE, we get acquainted with Weber’s technically challenging and melodically satisfying Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B flat Major.

In the process we gladly encounter the superb clarinetist Robert DiLutis and the equally accomplished Mellifera Quartet

We also get to hear the polytonal Sonatina for Clarinet, op. 27 by Miklós Rózsa – not the film music Rózsa mind you but the concert music Rózsa – vaguely atonal, with hints of Debussy here and there and plenty of opportunities for both the clarinet and the quartet to shine.

With Alexander Glazunov’s Rêverie Orientale we get intoxicating exoticism and the superb clarinetist Robert DiLutis dazzling us again with his filigreed work.

Tracks 8 and 9 are given to the Swedish composer Erland von Koch’s Monolog 3 for solo clarinet, a bipartite composition both colorful and accessible.

Heinrich Joseph Baermann’s Adagio for Clarinet and Strings is a short and compellingly meditative piece for the prince of woodwind instruments.

Wilson Osborne’s quietly melodic Rhapsody for Clarinet concludes the CD in a quiet mood.

With a total playing time of sixty minutes, the DELOS CD provides an hour of musical enchantment with off-the-beaten-path music played by five superb artists, recorded at Riverdale House Museum in Riverdale, Maryland, perfectly engineered by Christian Amonson, and elegantly produced by Robert DiLutis himself.

Rafael de Acha http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”