Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993 TAG: 9301210227
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CLARINETIST'S PERFORMANCE IS ASTOUNDING
He's every classical record company exec's dream, and he played to a packed house Tuesday night at Washington & Lee University's Lenfest Center.Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman is that rarest of commodities in the world of fine-arts music, the classical crossover artist whose recordings have established a beach head in the CD stores' pop music bins. Stoltzman is a member of that select group of artists - flutist James Galway, the Kronos Quartet and a very few others - who have name recognition with the general public.
Appearing with pianist Irma Vallecillo, herself a widely recorded major-label artist, Stoltzman demonstrated to the standing-room-only crowd why he is the first clarinetist of any genre in nearly three decades to make a major impact on the American music scene.
Simply put, Stoltzman is an astounding musician. His facility and technical control of the instrument are little short of amazing. He may not be the greatest clarinetist in the world or even America - David Shifrin, for example, is fully Stoltzman's equal - but he has attained a level of musicianship that is rare in any time or place.
Stoltzman's program ranged from 19th- and 20th-century clas- sics for the instrument to American jazz standards. He began with Claude Debussy's "Premiere Rhapsodie" for clarinet and piano, and it was in this piece that one aspect of his technical mastery was evident.
Stoltzman has the broadest tonal palette and most exquisite dynamic control of any clarinetist I have heard in concert. He plays quietly probably better than any other clarinetist today.
Next was the "Abime des Oiseaux," or "Abyss of the Birds" from Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time." For solo clarinet, this rarely heard piece got its second performance in a few weeks in Western Virginia, the first coming from the clarinetist of the New York Wind Trio at Olin Hall.
Stoltzman played the slow sections and the beginning and end at a somewhat faster tempo than most performers. The central "birdcall" section was nearly flawless.
Probably the finest piece on the program was the great Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1, a late product of Johannes Brahms. Especially beautiful was the autumnal richness of the second movement.
The second half of the recital was devoted to 20th-century American composers, with much of the music having a jazz feel. Timothy Greatbatch's "Nightscapes" was a three-movement exploration of the idea of night. The second-movement "Moonlight" section was an ethereal nocturne; "Dawn" was a movement of fleeting, Ariel-like perpetual motion.
Clare Fischer's "Sonatine" was written especially for Richard Stoltzman and was premiered earlier this concert season. It was the most substantial of the new works on the program and featured a pronounced jazz flavor.
The final scheduled piece was actually a set of three shorter works that Stoltzman assembled into what he called the "American Triptych." First was the light-hearted "Clarinada" of Dick Hyman. Next was the haunting jazz nocturne "The Peacocks," which film buffs may have recognized as the theme to the French jazz film "Round Midnight."
The last panel of the triptych was an expansive arrangement of Cole Porter's classic "Night and Day," which arranger William Thomas McKinley had transformed into a kind of jazz rhapsody with an almost symphonic texture.
Stoltzman and Vallecillo returned to encore with a virtuoso arrangement of "Amazing Grace,' which featured a quiet and deeply felt meditation on the hymn tune from the clarinet while the piano provided mainly block chords.
The encore earned Stoltzman a standing ovation.
Note: WBRA (Channel 15) will air a repeat of a Michigan State University concert, "Richard Stoltzman and Friends," with keyboardist-bassoonist Bill Douglas and bassist Eddie Gomez, on Sunday at 10 p.m.