Clarinet Recital: Frost, Martin - COPLAND, A. / BRAHMS, J. / FROST, G. / LUTOSLAWSKI, W. / PIAZZOLLA, A. / HILLBORG, A. (Dances to a Black Pipe)

Includes the virtuosic coda of the Copland Concerto in its original version as track 19

Martin Fröst isn’t just one of the major clarinettists of our time – he is also an intrepid adventurer who challenges conventional notions of how classical music should be presented. He has played Bach-Gounod’s Ave Maria while doing figures-of-eight on roller-skates, performed the part of dancing soloist (wearing a bird’s mask) in Anders Hillborg’s clarinet concerto Peacock Tales, and is constantly giving new proof of his curiosity when it comes to repertoire that defies genres. True to form, he here presents, with the internationally acclaimed Australian Chamber Orchestra, a wide-ranging selection of works which are all related to dance. Hillborg has made a chamber version, previously unrecorded, of his acclaimed concerto, while his colleague Fredrik Högberg has composed Dancing with Silent Purpose, a work which in concert is performed against a back-drop projection of a choreographic video. Göran Fröst, the brother of the soloist, has arranged a selection of Brahms’ ever-popular Hungarian Dances for clarinet and strings, and has also composed Klezmer Dances, with elements of Eastern European klezmer music. These Swedish composers are joined by international masters such as Lutoslawski, who based his Dance Preludes on rhythms from Polish folk music, and Aaron Copland, whose Clarinet Concerto was composed for Benny Goodman, ‘the King of Swing’ – especially for this disc, Martin Fröst has recorded the rarely heard, dazzling original coda to the work. Not forgetting the great Latin American dance tradition, he also performs the infinitely expressive Oblivion by the giant of modern tango, Astor Piazzolla.