Chicago Clarinet ClassicsJohn Bruce Yeh (clarinet)
Theresa Reilly (clarinet)
Patrick Godon (piano)
rec. 2022, Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, USA
Cedille CDR90000218 [76]

A recent article noted the retirement of violinist Marilyn Dubow Krakauer after 52 years with the New York Philharmonic. John Bruce Yeh, co-principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is not retiring yet – but he has been a member of the CSO since 1977. When he does retire, he may beat Ms. Krakauer’s record. He is also the founder and director of the Chicago Pro Musica chamber ensemble, and has made a number of recordings (review ~ review ~ review ~ review). For this disc, he chose works by six composers with connections to Chicago. If the geographic base is narrow, the chronological one is wide: it ranges from 1938 to 2020.

Alexander Tcherepnin moved to Chicago in 1947 after spending the war years in Paris. There is a Parisian feeling to his brief sonata in one movement for clarinet and piano, a masterpiece of compression, with enough material to fill a full-length sonata.

One of Tcherepnin’s students in Chicago, Robert Muczynski, went on to become a composer well-known especially for his wind works. One of his best known is Time Pieces for clarinet and piano from 1983, whose four movements make it almost a sonata. It begins with an exciting, well-developed allegro, followed by a mysterious, almost sinister slow movement, with asides from the piano. The scherzo section is very gentle, but also reminds one of the ticking of a clock, while the final movement alternates motoric energy with lyrical passages.

Now we move forward three and a half decades. Israeli-American musician Shulamit Ran was the CSO’s composer in residence in 1990-1997; in 1991, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Symphony. She wrote the 2017 piece Spirit in memory of her friend clarinetist Laura Flax. I was a little leery of this seemingly complex work for solo clarinet, but fortunately the piece is eminently direct and sincere. It covers a wide range of emotions in its six minutes.

Also from 2017 comes another piece for solo clarinet, Phoenix Rising by Stacy Garrop, well-known in Chicago and beyond. The two-part work, based on phoenix legends, could be described as a symphonic poem for solo clarinet.

Theresa Reilly is a free-lance clarinetist and a composer (and John Bruce Yeh’s wife). The Forgiveness Train for two clarinets dates from 2020, the time of the pandemic. The three-part work ably portrays the emotions I am sure many felt: where will the world be when this is over? Ms. Reilly wisely leaves the ultimate destination a little vague.

It is unclear how much Leo Sowerby learned from his lessons with Percy Grainger around 1915. Francis Crociata’s booklet note on Sowerby’s piece says that Grainger’s most important influence may have been to advise him to learn the clarinet in case the U.S. enters the First World War. Sowerby did so, and served as a Lieutenant/Bandmaster. The Clarinet Sonata, however, comes from 20 years later, a little before the start of another World War. It was written in gratitude to Burnet C. Tuttle, little remembered today. In his lifetime, Tuttle was a prominent advocate for American music, who already had fostered the publication of several of Sowerby’s works. (He was also a talented composer, especially of church and orchestral music.) In addition, as Mr. Crociata tells us, Tuthill’s 1937 article on Sowerby for the Musical Quarterly was the most comprehensive evaluation the of Sowerby’s music to appear in his lifetime.

The Clarinet Sonata’s first movement, marked Slow and sombre, starts with a nocturnal feeling that turns more lighthearted before the movement just drifts away. The next movement, marked Exuberantly, but not too fast, is a scherzo. It features spirited interplay between the two soloists as the mood becomes steadily lighter. There also is interplay, but of a serene kind, in the slow movement marked Quietly flowing. Sowerby demonstrates his knowledge of what the clarinet can do, and the haunting middle section is the highlight of the whole sonata. The last movement, Bright and merry, has a little of the jauntiness of Sowerby’s jazz pieces from the 1920s (review), but it shows a more mature type of enthusiasm than do those works.

With such a varied program, the clarinetist must have a wide range of technical ability and emotional intelligence. Mr. Yeh has both these qualities in abundance, as well as reserves of energy when needed. But it is his skill at shaping a phrase and his low notes that most remain with the listener. His frequent accompanist Patrick Godon, principal keyboardist of the CSO, is a worthy foil in the pieces with piano, especially in Muczynski’s and Sowerby’s works. As usual with Cedille releases, this disc does Chicago performers and composers proud.

William Kreindler

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Contents
Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977)
1. Sonata in one movement for clarinet and piano [5:04]
Stacy Garrop (b. 1969)
Phoenix Rising for Solo Clarinet [10:49] (premiere recording of version for clarinet)
2. Dying in embers [4:59]
3. Reborn in flames [5:49]
Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, H 240a [26:32]
4. Slow and sombre [5:46]
5. Exuberantly, but not too fast [5:07]
6. Quietly flowing [7:43]
7. Bright and merry [7:45]
Shulamit Ran (b. 1949)
8. Spirit for Solo Clarinet [5:45]
Teresa Reilly (b. 1976)
The Forgiveness Train for two clarinets [11:28]
9. The Derailment of Fear [3:22]
10. The Gifts Beneath the Wounds [3:54]
11. The Rhythm of Birth [4:06]
Robert Muczynski (1929-2010)
Time Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 43 [16:35]
12. Allegro risoluto [2:44]
13. Andante espressivo [6:06]
14. Allegro moderato [2:12]
15. Introduction: Andante molto – Allegro energico [5:24]

The pieces by Sowerby, Ran and Reilly are world premiere recordings.