Luogo e data di registrazione		-
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Recording Supervision		-
	Edizione LP		TELEFUNKEN - 6.42821 AZ - (1 LP - durata 43' 23") - (p) 1981 - Digitale
	Originale LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		-
	Note		-

The clarinet, which developed from an early reed instrument, the chalumeau, established itself in the orchestra ca. 1750 - a Whitsun cantata with "concertante clarinetto" written by Telemann in 1721 is one of the few early exceptions that can be traced. Fifty years later, at the turn od the century, the clarinet was a fashionable instrument. Travelling virtuosi and wind soloists in theatre orchestras gave their own concerts, of appeared in the academies of other musicians they knew, and the demand for and consumption of solo music was correspondingly high. The vast body of music written for clarinet was hastily jotted-down, two-a-penny stuff, with tedious scales and unimaginative chordal figures, and only a few works stood out as being of fasting value: concerti and chamber music by Mozart, Schubert, Weber, Spohr, Reicha, Brahms and Reger. These are compositions which suit the spirit and character of the instrument, which are satistying as a whole, both musically and in technical and virtuoso terms. Towards the end of the 19th century, the public's interest in solo clarinet music, and thus the production of new compositions, suffered a temporary decline, and Stravinsky was the first 20th century composer to give renewed impetus to unaccompanied clarinet music with his "Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet" (1919). Stravinsky wrote these technically complex and somewhat atonal pieces in Morges, and dedicated them to the amateur clarinetist Werner Reinhardt, who had generously financed the first production of the composer's "The Soldier's Tale". The first two numbers require an A-clarinet while the third is written for B-clarinet. The placid first piece moves mainly in the deep register; the second, with its arpeggios and arabesques and its notation devoid of bar markings, makes an improvised, occasionally hectic impression, while the third piece recalls in its diction tango and ragtime from "The Soldier's Tale". Of equal brevity to the last two miniatures is Debussy's "Petite Pièce". His subtitle, "Morceau à déchiffrer pour le concours de Clarinette 1910", betrays the purpose of the work: it was a piece to be played at sight by the candidates in the wind instrument competitions at the Paris Conservatoire - Debussy had been nominated as judge of the competitions in the previous year by Fauré. Another original work written for the Conservatoire competitions was Schumann's highly poetic three "Fantasy Pieces" op. 73 (for clarinet, violin or cello with piano accompaniment, whose melodies in the form a-b-a with coda have a moving effect, even where they are heard against a background of urgent triplet phrases on the piano. Uwe Kraemer (Translation: Clive Williams) ·········· Kálmán Berkes, born 1952 in Budapest, studied the clarinet at the Budapest "Béla Bartók" Conservatoire after having previously studied the piano and violin from 1966 to 1970. He graduated at the Academy of Music in 1977. Various prizes and guest appearances at home and abroad drew attention to the young artist. Dezsö Ránki, born 1951 in Budapest, already began learning the piano at the age of eight, and from 1971 to 1973 attended the master class of Géza Anda, graduating with the concert diploma. Numerous tours and guest performances at international festivals took the young pianist to all the important music centres throughout the world. Many prizes and awards, as well as several successful gramophone records (among others Bartók - For Children, Bartók - Mikrokosmos and Strawinsky - Piano Music for TELEFUNKEN) characterise his remarkable career.