"Record of the Year" Award by Stereo Review 에 빛나는 역작의 명반을 즐기시기 바랍니다..

모짜르트 클라리넷 협주곡 최고의 명연.

시프린은 특별히 제작한 광역 클라리넷을 사용하여, 빠른 템포로 지극히 아름다운 모짜르트를 들려주고 있는데, 그 풍부하면서도 부드럽고 따뜻한 음색은 대단히 매력적이다.

슈와츠의 지휘도 치밀한 조화를 이루고 있다. 슈와츠의 지휘도 시프린과 감정적인 교류가 일치하여, 모짜르트 특유의 따뜻한 정감이 곡 전체에 흐른다..

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622
1. Allegro 12:21
2. Adagio 7:52
3. Rondo - Allegro 9:09
David Shifrin, clarinet
Gerard Schwarz, conductor
Mostly Mozart Orchestra

Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581
4. Allegro 9:16
5. Larghetto 6:31
6. Menuetto 7:05
7. Allegretto con Variazioni 9:10
David Shifrin, clarinet
Chamber Music Northwest:
Ida Kavafian, Theodore Arm, violins
Toby Appel, viola
Fred Sherry, cello

"Record of the Year" Award, Stereo Review

Ovation:
"Recording of Distinction. Superb recording of two great works... Like hearing them for the first time... A gem. Not to be missed." This is the one that made David Shifrin famous and became a perennial best-seller for Delos.

These two masterpieces for clarinet have entered contemporary life through films in recent years: A melody from the Concerto soared through "Out of Africa," while the Quintet compelled Salieri to acknowledge Mozart's genius in "Amadeus."

Shifrin, now Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, is one of the world's great clarinetists. "If there is a bel canto school of clarinet playing, Shifrin is surely its finest exponent," wrote the Los Angeles Times.

This recording offers something more than its lyrical performances and superb recorded sound. You'll notice that the cover shows Shifrin with two clarinets. One of them is a specially elongated instrument which allows him to perform both works with their original melodic contours.

Because the clarinet has been shortened and simplified during the nearly two centuries since Mozart's death, modern instruments are not capable of reaching the low notes in the original works. When musicians play the Concerto and Quintet on the modern clarinet today, parts of whole phrases are transposed an octave higher. Much of the clarinet voice in the Concerto, for example, suffers from breaks in mid-phrase.

So Shifrin set out to remedy this problem by designing an instrument that would accomodate the lower register of the Concerto. The result: an extended-range clarinet built for him by the distinguished wind-instrument maker, Leonard Gullotta. Shifrin attaches a unique lower joint, incorporating a system of alternating keys for the little fingers, to the top half of his regular clarinet. Though this adds about eight inches and five pounds to the instrument, and in the soloist's words, "looks like an awful lot of hardware," the music "takes on a more bittersweet quality, deeper and fuller."

San Francisco Chronicle:
"These performances come as close to being ideal as any in my experience. Shifrin hits almost unbelievable peaks of beauty again and agian. His taste are impeccable at every moment, and the sound he produces is a revelaton in just how beautifully the clarinet can be played. He does for his instrument what Flagstad did for our concept of Wagnerian sopranos. Shifrin also seems to have inspired his colleagues, for both accompaniments are outstanding in every respect, and the recording superb. Highest possible recommendation."

Stereo Review:
"Record of the Year. How musicologists have arrived at these reconstructions of the original versions of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto makes for fascinating reading in the notes to this CD, but what truly distinguishes the disc is the glowing performances it contains. Clarinetist David Shifrin approaches both works in the highest bel canto style, with a seamless, long-line legato enhanced by a velvety tone. Both the Chamber Music Northwest (in the quintet) and the Mostly Mozart Orchestra (in the concerto) follow his lead and imbue the performances with a mellowness that does not obscure the melancholy lying below the surface of these late mature work