Berg & Phillips & Hanslip - Clarinet (CD)

Danish clarinettist Mathias Kjoller, himself a laureate in the Carl Nielsen Competition and former principal of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, has collaborated with several highly acclaimed musicians for this recording of chamber music works. The album is a testament to the sound worlds created for the clarinet by Schumann, Reinecke, Debussy, Berg and Corigliano. The connection between composers is foremost an emotional, and very melancholic one, ranging from the highly expressive Three Romances by Schumann to Alban Berg's Adagio, with Corigliano's Soliloquy serving as a sorrowful coda having been written in memoriam of the composer's father. Kjoller writes: "The first experience I had with the clarinet was listening to my older brother practicing. A few years later it was finally my turn to begin playing an instrument, and the choice was obvious. Since then a combination of dedication and luck have brought me to where I am today - where I can actually do what I love the most everyday: to make music."