The billing of moderately well-known Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst in last-name-only large type, above that of composer Carl Maria von Weber, may seem a bit presumptuous, but Fröst delivers what he presumes. This is a superb recording of Weber's clarinet music, which is attractive for its mixture of an extreme virtuoso language with Germanic formal logic. Weber wrote all of the music here for a star clarinetist, and, listening to the opening movement of the Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 75, especially, it is ...
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The billing of moderately well-known Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst in last-name-only large type, above that of composer Carl Maria von Weber, may seem a bit presumptuous, but Fröst delivers what he presumes. This is a superb recording of Weber's clarinet music, which is attractive for its mixture of an extreme virtuoso language with Germanic formal logic. Weber wrote all of the music here for a star clarinetist, and, listening to the opening movement of the Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 75, especially, it is hard to imagine that he did not have the feats of Paganini in his head. Yet everything is fitted, smoothly and inventively, into the logic of sonata form. Leaping cadenzas, for instance, may serve as transitions between thematic areas. Plenty of clarinetists have tackled these fearsome works, but few have understood this duality as well as Fröst -- and then combined that understanding with an awe-inspiring fluidity of sound across the entire range of the clarinet. In the central...
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