Album Notes

1}G.Rossini:"Ecco ridente in cielo" :

1}Cantabile
2}Allegro
from Barber of Seville by Rossini three-part fantasy for clarinet and piano Op.27 composed by clarinetist Ivan Muller.The Rossini operas used by Muller date from 1816.

2}G.Donizetti:"Una furtiva lagrima" :

1}Larghetto
Romanza in the Opera "L'Elisir d'Amore" by Gaetano Donizetti is part of a collection of various compositions for clarinet and piano, the clarinetist Domenico Mirco (1820 ca.-1866}.

3}V.Bellini: "Casta Diva" :

1}Andante sostenuto
from the Cavatina of Norma by Ferdinando Sebastiani (1803-1860) the Work of M. Bellini for Clarinet and Piano (Autograph). Composed in 1834 and dedicated to the singer Ronzi De Begnis.

4}G.Verdi :"Allor che i forti corrono" :

1}Andantino-Allegro-
is an `air the opera Attila by Verdi changed for clarinet and piano by Benedetto Carulli (1797-1877}.

5}Dan Welcher "Dante Dances "for clarinet and piano (1995):

• I. Introduction: Gates of Hell
• II.Tango (for Charon)
• III.Charleston (for Cerberus)
• IV. Polka (for the Furies)
• V. Gymnopédie (for Paolo & Francesca)
• VI. Schottishe (for Ulysses)
• VII.Tarantella (for Gianni Schicchi)

This is a lively work for clarinet and piano. Its spirited use of dance rhythms and its virtuoso qualities make it a prime consideration for recitalists.

Dan Welcher (b. 1948 in Rochester, NY) is particularly noted for his instrumental music, but has a large catalog of works in almost all classical genres. His music tends to be tonal, even when he uses serial elements, and rhythm is a very strong element in his music.

Welcher wrote this piece after clarinetist Bradley Wong requested a virtuoso piece and suggested that Welcher "go to the devil" for inspiration. Welcher writes that as his previous clarinet pieces were all "rather elegant pieces," he was already included to write a raucous, devilish work. (He points out that while it is the trombone that is most solidly associated with the Devil in classical music, the clarinet is the loudest and most assertive member of the woodwind family.)

Welcher had been reading the then-new Robert Pinsky translation of Dante's Inferno while thinking about a virtuoso work in theme and variations form. When the formalities for a commission were completed, he says, he thought, "Poor Brad: 'Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here!'"

This set the stage for the opening section of the work, an Introduction and Theme entitled "The Gates of Hell." The theme is based on a twelve-note row, but Welcher advises listeners that the serial system is not rigorously used, and that the work is tonally based.

After the theme, the work is a succession of six variations, each in the form of a dance, and each named after a personage encountered by Dante on his trip through the Underworld. Most of these are dance forms that have come about since the fifteenth century, when Dante wrote his great poem. "I'm sure that even characters from the fifteenth century who are living in Hell have been exposed, by now, to tangos and charlestons," Welcher says.

Most of the dances are fast and rather low-down in feeling. The first is a "Tango (for Charon)"; the ferryman of the River Styx glides across in the sultry rhythm. Another Hellish guardian next makes an appearance in "Charleston (for Cerberus)." This three-headed dog that guards the Third Circle of Hell snaps in syncopation with the 1920s dance craze.

An even faster dance is the "Polka (for the Furies)," which Welcher calls a "frenzied romp." Things quieten considerably as Welcher borrows a mock-antique dance form invented by Erik Satie in a "Gymnopédie (for Francesca and Paolo [the adulterous lovers who are also the hero and heroine of a Tchaikovsky tone poem])."

An entertaining "Schottische (for Ulysses)" and a whirling "Tarantella (for Gianni Schicchi)" wind up the piece by depicting two persons in Hell for being deceivers. At the end the elegant Gymnopédie theme plays against the speedy Tarantella.

Welcher says the devilish nature of the music asserted itself: After completing it on the 13th of the month, he timed the music and found it came to 13 minutes.

6}Claude Debussy "Syrinx" :

1}Tres modere`
original piece for solo flute which Claude Debussy wrote in 1913 here in the version for solo clarinet.

7}John Cage "Sonata" for clarinet :

1}Vivace
2}Lento
3}Vivace
is an early work by John Cage, composed in 1933. It is also known under its early title, Sonata for One Voice.

8}Gordon Jacob " Five Pieces "for Solo clarinet :

1}Preamble
2}Waltz
3}Homage To I.S.B
4}Soliloquy
5}Scherzo and Trio
composed in the early l970s, were dedicated to the London-based clarinetist, Georgina Dobrée. Making use of virtually every aspect of traditional clarinet playing, these short, precise pieces masterfully reflect their subtitles: Preamble, Waltz, Homage to J.S.B. (Johann Sebastian Bach), Soliloquy and Scherzo and Trio.


Romualdo Barone {clarinet} Junko Kasahara {pf} Track 1/2/3//4 Mai Nishiwaki {pf} Track 5 ;
Recording Nagoya -Aichi Japan