Clarinette 20-21

What luck to be able to play newly composed music! Imagine having the chance to meet Schubert, Mozart or Mahler, and with their guidance, having our performances correspond exactly to what they wanted to express!
Despite having proximity with composers, I am often told that it is necessary to possess overly specific knowledge to be able to play and appreciate contemporary music. Because we lack a reference or tradition relating to this music, the primary difficulty is that of starting from a blank page as opposed to a work, for example, by Brahms, with which we reinstate a past and a heritage that is part of us. Approaching contemporary music can be disconcerting, since it is not deeply rooted in our experience.Still, for me, the musical method seems to be the same in terms of the quality of playing, regardless of whether the work being performed is baroque, romantic, modern or contemporary.Expression and musical discourse are the guidelines, together with rigorous respect for the score. Little by little we create our own history by taking possession of a new language.This album, resulting from a very close collaboration with each composer, provides the insights necessary for mastering specific instrumental demands and acquiring a musical understanding of each work. Thus, the decision to include different fingering charts seemed important to me to allow students to compare various types of notation that already exist. The CD recording of the pieces serves as an additional reference.In this album, you will fend a group of pieces for solo clarinet, duets for clarinets and pieces for clarinet and piano, most of which are no longer than two minutes. Some pieces are written in rather classical notation such as Un, deux, trois... by E. Danajloska or L'Arbre by P. Schoeller while others use contemporary techniques (multiphonics, vibrato, flatterzungen, quarter tones), such as Ondes by A. Posadas, Echoing Forest by F. Tanada, Double by J.L. Hervé or Blues by B. Mantovani. At the end, you can experiment with contemporary improvisation thanks to C. Crousier's piece Brouillasse-Broussaille.The composers were chosen from well-known international artists with whom I work often with ensemble 'L'Itinéraire'. I would like to thank each of them for participating in this fantastic project of transmission and creation. I would also like to thank Maryvonne Le Dizès for her precious help.Aude Richard-Camus