The Weather Inside – New Music for Clarinet

(Eclectra ECCD-2071)

Don Ross, clarinets, with St. Crispin’s Chamber Ensemble (Janet Smith, soprano; Marnie Giesbrecht, organ; Joachim Segger, piano; Aaron Au, viola; Trevor Brandenburg, vibraphone and marimba)

Liner notes in English.

The wide variety and diversity of the compositions selected for this album demonstrate their inherent uniqueness as the expressive and stylistic products of their creators. Yet they also manage to belie that uniqueness with deeply hidden, but still similar, undercurrents of impulse, expression, timbres, textures and forms. These works are most definitely contemporary, but not at all avant-garde – they strive for the more traditional means of beauty and expression rather than the experimental. They range from strictly solo unaccompanied clarinet, to clarinet or bass clarinet with a variety of instruments including soprano, piano, marimba, viola, vibraphone or organ. None of these instruments can be said to perform an “accompaniment” function. Each performs a necessary and integral counterpoint to the clarinet. These are real duos in the truest sense of the term. From many of these works emerge a wide spectrum of extended performance techniques that, of themselves, do not impose any particular stylistic agenda for the listener. Unlike the deliberate virtuosity written into much of the concerto music of the early Romantic period, these performance techniques play elemental roles within the works in which they are employed. Each composition is free form or through composed, lending a certain challenge to the listener to defy aural analysis. Their moods generally tend to lean towards dark, moody, and even introspective sonorities. They might even be described as examples of lyrical introversion or pessimistic lyricism. [From liner notes by Jerry Ozipko]

Raoul De Smet (Belgium): Vocalise nr 1 for soprano and clarinet (1986) [05:35]

Kenneth Girard (USA): Soliloquy for clarinet solo (1998) [05:46]

Don Ross (Canada): The Weather Inside for clarinet and piano (2003) [08:23]

Shane Krepakevich (Canada): if i move slowly through this task for solo clarinet (2004) [07:44]

Stanislaw Moryto (Poland): No Title for bass clarinet and marimba (1997) [04:48]

Boudewijn Buckinx (Belgium): Bucolica II for clarinet and viola (2002) [08:30]

Rob Morin (Canada): Twilight for clarinet and vibraphone (2003) [09:02]

Jacek Sobieraj (Canada): Music Poem for clarinet and piano (1997) [05:27]

Laurie Radford (Canada): Wherewithal for clarinet solo (2002) [01:34]

Piotr Grella-Mozejko (Canada): Numen for bass clarinet and organ (2002) [08:52]

As a completely uncertified, steadfastly unscientific, and from time to time probably wrong-headed musicologist with a penchant for nailing shingles to the fog, I divide composers into two categories-those of a conservative bent who satisfy themselves, and often us, with their variations on the musical past, and those of a more fundamentalist nature (they can be found in all musicological periods), who rethink the basic elements of music and create new sound worlds. The composers on this release are of the latter category. Lest I be misunderstood, there are good, bad, and indifferent composers in each of these philosophical realms. These folks, however, deserve our attention, and study… The result is a 66-minute odyssey into musical possibility provided by highly capable and simpatico musicians, handsomely recorded.

William Zagorski, Fanfare, March/April 2006

Through years of experience as an enthusiastic teacher and in performances with a number of local ensembles, Don Ross has shown there is much, much more to the clarinet. Now, he has released a solid, satisfying disc… {A]n entertaining and encouraging disc courtesy of Ross and many of Edmonton’s finest new composers.

Prosper Prodaniuk SEE Magazine, Jan. 26 – Feb. 1, 2006

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