New concertos for bass clarinet
Joseph Phibbs (b. 1974)
Concerto for bass clarinet and orchestra (2025)
Jorgen Dafgard (b. 1964)
Tandem: Concerto for violin and bass clarinet (2022)
Geoffrey Gordon (b. 1968)
Prometheus: Concerto for bass clarinet and orchestra (2018)
Carl Johan Stjernström (bass clarinet), Malmö Symphonie Orchestra (Phibbs and Gordon), Musica Vitae (Dafgård)/Joachim Gustafsson
rec. 2022 (Dafgård), 2025 (Phibbs and Gordon), Malmö Live, Malmö, Sweden
TOCCATA NEXT TOCN 0037 [81]

In recent years, concertos have been written for all sorts of instruments that one might not have expected to have a concerto, such as saxophone, theremin and percussion. Among these have been concertos for the auxiliary instruments of the woodwind group, such as flutes of various sizes including the piccolo, the cor anglais and even the contrabassoon. So it is not surprising that there should be concertos for the bass clarinet. It has more or less the same range as the cello, which no one thinks unsuitable as a solo instrument, and in the hands of a good player it can sound luscious and resonant. (An indifferent player or a poor instrument can provide a dismal honking, but that is not what we have here.)

These three concertos were all written for the same Swedish soloist, Carl-Johan Stjernström. After beginning his career playing the soprano clarinet , he took up the bass, and for many years now he has played bass clarinet in the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, who feature in two of these works.

The English composer Joseph Phibbs has been making a successful career, and I enjoyed a disc of his string quartets last year (review). His idiom is tonal, occasionally suggestive of Britten. He wrote a concerto for soprano clarinet a few years ago, recorded on Signum, and about it see this interview. Recently, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra commissioned this bass clarinet concerto for Stjernström, who is a personal friend of Phibbs, to play. It is in four rather than the usual three movements, with a mysterious opening before moving to a rapid tempo with playful material. The second movement is also fast with calls and responses between soloist and orchestra. The slow movement is romantic and the finale light-hearted, with a cadenza for the soloist.

Next we have the double concerto for violin and bass clarinet by the Swedish composer Jörgen Dafgård. This was commissioned by the string orchestra Musica Vitae, who perform here, and they also wanted a prominent part for their lead violinist – hence a double concerto and the title Tandem. There are three movements. The first goes through a variety of moods and tempi, while the second in slow triple time, is very lyrical, and explores the whole range of the bass clarinet. The finale is superficially cheerful but has darker undertones, which the composer connects with the start of the war in Ukraine.

Finally we have Prometheus by the American composer Geoffrey Gordon, who also works a good deal in Britain. He has already written two concertos for soprano clarinet, Ses purs ongles très haut, which also involves a chorus, and Fumée for soprano clarinet and chamber orchestra. Prometheus follows the version of the legend set out by Franz Kafka in four episodes, which are given in the booklet. This is the most dramatic and anguished of the three works. The orchestral writing is more assertive than in its companions. I think Gordon may have been listening to some Magnus Lindberg, since some of the brass fanfares sound uncannily similar to his. There are many twists and turns in the course of the work before the final ‘fade to black conclusion’, as the composer puts it.

These performances are all authoritative, though I should note that this is not the first recording of Prometheus. It has previously appeared on an all-Gordon disc entitled Mythologies and Mad Songs, which was warmly received by my colleague Nick Barnard (review). It is perhaps also the highlight of the present disc, though all these works are worth hearing. I look forward to more concertos for the less common instruments. This disc is listed as Music from Malmö Volume One, so perhaps there will be.

Stephen Barber

Other review: Nick Barnard

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