The following are live recordings of some of my performances. One of the many thrilling aspects of this profession is having the opportunity to play great works with colleagues whom I admire and respect. This process of collaboration and balancing often disparate musical opinions, with the ultimate goal of creating a fulfilling performance for both performer and audience, is one of the trickiest things to achieve - and usually there is just one chance to get it right! Even though I've had numerous collaborations with many wonderful artists in recording studios over the years, one of the greatest rewards as a musician is being able to trust and 'read' your colleagues in live performance, take musical risks and be spontaneous - an essence that is rarely captured in the studio. There's something about this immediacy and vulnerability in live performance that also adds to the emotional breadth of the composition, making it unique to that singular moment in time.
All these recordings are best listened to on headphones, over a broadband connection for the most detail and fidelity.
All these recordings are best listened to on headphones, over a broadband connection for the most detail and fidelity.
The Magnus Lindberg Clarinet Quintet is quite an endurance test: in addition to its numerous technical challenges it also requires the clarinetist to be constantly engaged with the instrument for the full 17-minute duration of the piece: a true chop-buster. I was very fortunate to have my amazing string colleagues in counter)induction as collaborators for this performance: their astonishing accuracy and level-headedness really made all of Magnus' details and interactions between clarinet and strings shine. counter)induction website: www.counterinduction.com More info about Magnus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Lindberg
I've had the recent good fortune to work with the legendary composer Mario Davidovsky, who is one of the great pioneers of electronic music. His landmark 'Synchronisms' series unite the worlds of acoustic instruments and electronic sounds in a thoroughly complementary and seamless fashion. His most recent addition, Number 12, is a fantastic continuation of this tradition, and I was honored to perform this piece at several of his 80th birthday celebrations - both in his native Buenos Aires and at the Composers Conference at Wellesley College.
The music of James Primosch is varied and uncompromisingly lyrical, and I was lucky to have the incomparable pianist Stephen Gosling as my partner for this performance of his piece Icons for clarinet, piano and tape. Rendered at the Electronic Music Department of Columbia University in the early 80's, the tape part was painstakingly constructed using traditional analog synthesizers and direct splicing, taking about a year to complete. Unlike much fixed media from that era, I've found this one to be very expressive and perfectly matched to the timbres of our two instruments. The opening and closing tape parts are extremely soft, so intense listening is definitely required at both ends of this one. Jim's website: www.jamesprimosch.com
I'm also a fan of Eric Moe's music. Eric wrote a fantastic piece for counter)induction for our 10th anniversary season, called Dead Cat Bounce, which we've recently recorded for our debut CD. Here are three movements from an earlier work of his - On The Tip Of My Tongue, for bass clarinet, Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and TX802 tone generator. Again with pianist Steve Gosling, they're entitled Tim's Tune, Double Take and What The Drums Say. Eric's website: www.ericmoe.net
Something a little more traditional: This recording of the last movement of the Brahms Eb Sonata is from a recital which took place in NYC shortly after September 11th, 2001 with pianist Eric Hachinski. Needless to say, there were a lot of emotions running rampant at that time. Due to a combination of those horrific events, scheduling conflicts, and the unusually great length of the recital, we were only able to manage one brief rehearsal on this venerable piece. We had to simply trust each other in performance, communicate on stage, and make music spontaneously, without contrivance. There have been very few people with whom I've ever felt comfortable doing this, and I fondly remember my collaborations with Eric from that time.
And finally, one of the great youthful works for clarinet - the Bernstein Sonata. In two short movements, it's his first published composition - at the age of 24, shortly before he became a conducting superstar. I think it's a fantastic example of economic compositional technique, idiomatic writing for the instrument, and expressive lyricism all in one. Here's the second movement, once more with Eric on piano.
