Contrechant: Music for Solo Clarinet

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Holliger's Contrechamps, in particular, is a veritable compendium of clarinet effects, including several uncanny moments when the clarinet seems to play parallel chords...Reto Bieri makes all... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2012, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 3rd Oct 2011
Catalogue No: 4764404
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 51 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Berio: Lied for clarinet (1983)

Work length5:03

$0.85

$1.15

Reto Bieri (clarinet)
Recorded: 2010-09-08
Recording Venue: Propstei St. Gerold

Holliger: Contrechant

Work length12:56

$5.10

$6.90

Reto Bieri (clarinet)
Recorded: 2010-09-08
Recording Venue: Propstei St. Gerold

Track length1:56

$0.85

$1.15

Track length1:54

$0.85

$1.15

III

Track length1:42

$0.85

$1.15

Track length1:14

$0.85

$1.15

Track length1:08

$0.85

$1.15

Epilog

Track length5:02

$0.85

$1.15

Sciarrino: Let me Die before I Wake

Work length9:57

$0.85

$1.15

Reto Bieri (clarinet)
Recorded: 2010-09-08
Recording Venue: Propstei St. Gerold

Carter, E: Gra for clarinet

Work length4:53

$0.85

$1.15

Reto Bieri (clarinet)
Recorded: 2010-09-08
Recording Venue: Propstei St. Gerold

Holliger: Rechant

Work length6:57

$0.85

$1.15

Reto Bieri (clarinet)
Recorded: 2010-09-08
Recording Venue: Propstei St. Gerold

Eötvös: Derwischtanz

Work length5:38

$0.85

$1.15

Reto Bieri (clarinet)
Recorded: 2010-09-08
Recording Venue: Propstei St. Gerold

Vajda, G: Lightshadow-trembling

Work length5:55

$0.85

$1.15

Reto Bieri (clarinet)
Recorded: 2010-09-08
Recording Venue: Propstei St. Gerold

About
Reviews
Explore

About

The highly gifted Swiss clarinettist Reto Bieri makes his ECM New Series debut with ‘Contrechant’, a brilliant recital for solo clarinet that looks at new developmental possibilities in the ‘language’ of the instrument in modern music. A wonderful panorama of contemporary music for clarinet by giants of new music – Elliott Carter (the grand old man of US music who celebrates his 103rd birthday in December), Heinz Holliger, Luciano Berio, Peter Eötvös and Salvatore Sciarrino plus an intriguing work by much discussed young Hungarian composer Gergely Vajda.

Beautifully recorded with producer Manfred Eicher in St Gerold, the works chosen by Bieri for this enterprising programme are Berio’s Lied (1983); Holliger’s Contrechant (2007) and Rechant from the following year; Let me die before I wake (1982) by Salvatore Sciarrino; Carter’s Gra (1993); Eötvös’s Derwischtanz (1993/2001); and Lightshadow-trembling, a piece composed by Gergely Vajda in1993. Bieri worked closely with composers Carter, Holliger, Eötvös, Sciarrino and Vajda toward the optimum realization of the pieces heard here. Collectively the works address the new language of the contemporary clarinet.

Reto Bieri was born in Zug, Switzerland, in 1975, and grew up listening to Swiss folk music before discovering the world of classical music. He studied the clarinet in Basel and at the Juilliard School in New York, and his musical development was also strongly influenced by chamber music lessons from composer György Kurtag and pianist Krystian Zimerman.

In 2001 Bieri won the UNESCO-sponsored International Rostrum for Young Performers award, and since then has been invited to play all over the world, as soloist and chamber musician. His musical partners include violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Sol Gabetta, and he’s performed chamber music with Gidon Kremer, Heinz Holliger, Dénes Varjon, Gautier Capuçon, Raphael Oleg, Carolin Widmann, Gérard Wyss, the Carmina, Casals and Petersen Quartets, and the Altenberg Trio. He has also collaborated with the Rosamunde Quartet, and projects in preparation include performances of Tigran Mansurian’s Double Concerto for Clarinet and Violoncello with ex-Rosamunde cellist Anja Lechner.

Reviews

February 2012

Holliger's Contrechamps, in particular, is a veritable compendium of clarinet effects, including several uncanny moments when the clarinet seems to play parallel chords...Reto Bieri makes all these sounds seem musical, even the harshest 'multiphonics' - though the famous soft-grained sound achieved by ECM's engineers surely helps in that regard.

27th October 2011

this collection of contemporary solo works reveals [Bieri] as a wonderfully controlled and subtle interpreter...The nearest to repertory works are Luciano Berio's beautifully shaped and coloured Lied, from 1983, and Elliott Carter's Gra, a gruff 80th-birthday tribute to Witold Lutosławski; Peter Eötvös's Derwischtanz and Gergely Vajda's Lightshadow Trembling

Contrechant: Music for Solo Clarinet

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue