infotext:
Matthew Mueller demonstrates impressively that this wind instrument is suitable for virtuosity. In Rossini's variations, romantic bravura brilliance is celebrated. The brand new clarinet concerto, which the Swiss soloist wrote for himself, focuses on tonal finesse and rhythmic variability. In the recorded solo works, these qualities are taken to the extreme.
In addition to the classics of solo literature for clarinet, the 3 pieces by Igor Stravinsky, Rossini's virtuosity is surpassed by Paganini and in his own Etudes de Concert Matthias Müller pushes the clarinet technique to new heights. In doing so, he orientates himself on the studies for piano by Chopin and Debussy and is able to open up the increased virtuosity to a musical expression of the clarinet that has never been heard before.
With the video films that are included as a bonus DVD, Matthias Müller is also breaking new ground: while Stockhausen's music theater piece The Little Harlequin was filmed in the classic way, he has created films for his Etudes de Concert with video artists that take up the genre of the video clip of pop music and create an independent artistic expression.
program:
Matthew Mueller (* 1966)
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (2007-2008) 18:12
[01] Allegro giocoso 04:42
[02] Andante cantabile 04:20
[03] Allegro scherzando leggiero 03:42
[04] Final 05:28
Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)
[05] Andante and Variations (1829) for clarinet and orchestra 15:56
1st Theme – Andante – 2nd Var. I – 3rd Var. II
4th Var. III - 5th Var. IV (minor) – 6th variety V
Igor stravinsky (1882-1971)
3 Pieces for Clarinet (1918) 04: 02
[06] I 01:37
[07] II 01:07
[08] III 01:15
Matthias Müller
6 Etudes de Concert (2006-2008) for solo clarinet 14:39
[09] jumping around 02:46
[10] perpetually 01:48
[11] plaine ondulée 02:29
[12] Vals all'appogiatura 02:33
[13] Homage 03:04
[14] Barbaro 01:58
Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)
[15] Perpetual motion op. 11, no. 6 post. (1831–1832) for clarinet 03:52
total time 57:02
Matthew Mueller, clarinet
ensemble zero · David Philip Hefti, conductor (01–05)
Recordings by Schweizer Radio DRS
DVD bonuses
Matthew Mueller (* 1966)
6 Etudes de Concert (2006-2008) for clarinet
Cyril Gfeller and Rosa Monika Guggenheim, film directors
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)
The little harlequin (1975) for clarinet
Simon Koenz, film director
Press:
04/2010
01/2010
Versatile Obsession
It is a stroke of luck: the Swiss Matthias Müller, excellent clarinetist and versatile musician of the younger generation, and the only two-year-old Munich label NEOS of the busy Wolf Weinmann - once the founder and spiritus rector of the avant-garde label col legno - found each other. Matthias Müller was able to present an earlier production with Boris Tchaikovsky's Clarinet Concerto, which is coupled with Debussy's Rhapsody and Carl Maria von Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 1998; the CD is technically improved and also suitably elaborately equipped as a digipack with a double flap - all productions of the NEOS label look like this. When these recordings first appeared in 2, I paid particular attention to the important clarinet concerto by the contemporary Tchaikovsky71. The composer died at the age of 1996 in XNUMX – i.e. shortly before the recording – and it is therefore all the more commendable to be able to give the grateful work a re-encountering in a new sound. For this I wrote:
A little irritated, you press the start button for track 1: Tchaikovsky's Clarinet Concerto! – It is of course not the well-known, but a contemporary Russian namesake, given name Boris Alexandrovich, …. who only experienced the Soviet state... His three-movement clarinet concerto sounds... like "Russian" like "Western", and with an attractive balance. Comparing this work, written in 1957, with the four-movement cello concerto seven years later, which is almost forty minutes long and contains a number of outbursts and excursions into more daring sound realms, one registers a very moderate modern tonal language in this piece, which lasts only 13 minutes. It begins surprisingly with the slow movement in leisurely three-four time, hauntingly flatteringly muted and soft in a sort of 'Russian soul cantilena'. It is followed by a Vivace section in triple time with virtuoso triumphs
clarinet garlands, which abruptly leads into a strongly rhythmic, almost swinging Allegro in four time, reminiscent of George Gershwin or Leonard Bernstein. The entire almost late-romantic work sounds in many passages like film music (which the composer also wrote), which goes effortlessly into the ear and the heart, which does not affect the quality of the invention: the listener is not challenged, he can lean back and let multicolored images pass by in his inner ear with his eyes closed...
In Debussy's Clarinet Rhapsody No. 1 and also in a version of “Petite Pièce” from 1909/1910, which he orchestrated from the piano part himself, he shows that he understands the modern age and that he has both a soft approach and a spirited attack at his command. Finally, in Weber's second clarinet concerto, he once again proves himself capable of singing beautiful cantilenas and boasting virtuosic access - in both cases convincing interpretations that can stand up to any competition.
With another production, the NEOS label has just offered Matthias Müller a new and sophisticated platform to introduce himself, his artistry and his musical ideas... A quiz question: How often does the clarinettist catch his breath while he's doing the crazy for almost four minutes Moto Perpetuo by Niccoló Paganini plays solo, i.e. without piano accompaniment? In the booklet he wrote himself, Müller writes that he is striving for a combined identity of virtuosity and artistic design, of playing perfection of the highest perfection as the basis of a design possibility that is completely independent of any technique and free and new at every moment of interpretation. It is an honor for him that he put the (almost) overwhelming proof of his own virtuosity at the end of his presentation on the SACD, where he played this show piece down at such a crazy pace in 3:52 minutes that hearing and seeing passed away. Of course, a single violin can do it even faster, such as with Menuhin3, which was completed in 1947 in a full three minutes, while Itzhak Perlman4 takes a little more time with 4:20 minutes; around four dozen large and very small Japanese violinists5 need almost six minutes in their fascinatingly precise version, which is more like a circus act than a musical revelation...
But what becomes recognizable with this Müllerian Paganini clarinet firework, alongside his stupendous artistry, is actually something like an inkling that an ideal case is possible in which "the instrument grows together with the body and mind of the musician", as Müller puts it . He consciously wants to "overcome any obstacles that stand between the musical idea and the sound result" with a playing technique that has been perfected to the extreme, and he continues: "In virtuosity, overcoming difficulties is celebrated and the music is brought close to the magic of magic. The soloist stands alone and has to justify his special role with a special performance.
These are many and very high demands on oneself and one would like to know whether Matthias Müller fulfills them. He courageously begins in the attractively present spatial sound of the silver disc with his own four-movement clarinet concerto, only recently completed and fascinating from the very first bars, when the clarinet tone snakes upwards on a sound carpet of the ensemble that emerges very quietly. The movements are not consistently rhythmically structured, so they almost always allow a flow like in a slide show of images in which a string of tone and sound ideas are presented one after the other. In contrast to the juxtaposition of the sound sections of the first movement, the second movement as an andante allows the motifs to flow into one another. The third movement – an Allegro scherzande leggiero – begins with a kind of rhythm that soon adapts more freely to a dynamically dancing and hopping clarinet part, which repeatedly dialogues with orchestral instruments that are emphasized as soloists. A brilliantly worked out solo cadence of the clarinet leads to the final movement, in which a virtuoso tendril work of the clarinet not only creates multicolored sound images, but also demands bizarre figurations from the soloist - the short concluding coda on pizzicati in the lower strings is rousingly designed as an almost feverish finale of the clarinet solo ...
In his own clarinet concerto, Matthias Müller proves to be a master of the form that doesn't want to expect the listener to do anything really "bad" in a neophonic way. In the course of the music pieces on this SACD he uses the next to demonstrate pure virtuosity for the first time: Rossini's Andante with Variations is a warhorse for the most demanding clarinettist; there are therefore countless recordings of it. Müller's interpretation differs from them in that, in addition to what Rossini wrote down, in many places he adds additional embellishments, trills, grace notes, even entire cadenzas with the highest virtuosic claim, so that one eagerly awaits new soloist flourishes and is surprised to find that they are how completely natural components of the sound, which is already geared towards virtuoso splendor, appear. The final variations rush past the ear at a truly adventurous tempo, so that one only finds one's own breath in a long and extremely sensitively composed cadence, which rages "virtuosissimo" in all tone and sound registers from the pianissimo bass to the fortissimo treble , before she reaches the redeeming final run.
These two works are accompanied by the inspired and sensitive ensemble zero, which Matthias Müller is also artistic director. This is followed by solo performances, initially with three pieces by Igor Stravinsky, which as original miniatures made a significant contribution to ending the slumber of the clarinet at the beginning of the last century. When Müller writes that Stravinsky shows the "richness of colour, ... virtuoso possibilities and ... stylistic variety with the first important solo work for clarinet in an exemplary manner", he is also the best advocate of this praise with his captivating interpretation. These miniatures were probably also the reason for composing such solo pieces for himself, the 6 Études de Concert. The booklet prints an entire sheet of music from three of the etudes - namely No. 1: "jumping around", No. 4: "Vals all'appogiatura" and No. 5: "hommage" - so you can follow along with what you are playing . Particularly interesting is No. 2, marked "perpetuum" - it anticipates the last Paganini flare of this SACD with a breathless continuous play. The "plaine ondulée" of No. 3 can actually be imagined as something like a wavy plane that shimmers in the light. The appogiatura waltz No. 4 surrounds the many main tones with decorative tendrils with many different grace notes and runs. No. 5 - "hommage" - works with particularly intricate playing techniques, such as slurring, overblowing, or letting only an upper tone of two notated notes sound with specific fingerings. In the last piece "barbaro" Müller ventures far beyond the usual and uses almost all modern playing techniques that can be performed with the clarinet today, for me the masterpiece of an avant-garde composer, who thus puts his entire range of musical experience to the test.
The booklet reports on Matthias Müller's clarinet studies with Hans-Rudolf Stalder in Basel and piano and composition studies, also with Jörg Wyttenbach, and mentions international soloist prizes. One also reads that he prefers to devote himself to contemporary music; he also premiered Kelterborn's clarinet concerto,6 which I discussed later, in Zurich.
The NEOS production also surprises with a bonus DVD, which is included in two formats: in PAL for Europe and in NTSC for Japan and other countries. It contains film recordings of both the six concert etudes and a recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Little Harlequin", an original ten-minute work for solo clarinet, which - because it was filmed - interpreted by Matthias Müller in a red and blue harlequin suit as a portrayal of a person and illustrated by the camera in varied images.
The visual designers of the image sequences - Rosa Monika Guggenheim and Cyril Gfeller - not only have the clarinettist in the sights of their cameras, but in some image sequences they also have, in addition to natural sequences in the background and alienating play of colors, above all the sound in the assignment to the interpreter artistically convincing processed.
One can only heartily congratulate the great, versatile, imaginatively committed musician on this production - what it offers in terms of lively and virtuoso music, general and self-related information, the art of film presentation and listening and viewing pleasure Worthy of all praise, and the same goes unreservedly for the NEOS label, who cannot be thanked enough for this.
Diether Steppuhn
Biel-Benkemer Dorf-Zyting
12/2009
Oct/Nov 2009
