Australian Clarinet & Saxophone

Petra and Heinz-Peter are Vienna-based musicians; born to be off-road is their first CD together. The stump-linshalm duo are graduates of the Universität für Musik in Vienna for clarinet, further specialised studies in the bass clarinet took Petra to Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Heinz-Peter to Bern (Switzerland). Since this time they have been heavily involved with Klangforum Wien, and founding their educational/composition project, ‘clarinet update – new music for young clarinet players.’
This double-CD represents some years of collaboration, bringing together stylistically diverse works from Austrian-based composers; the first disc containing works for clarinets and electronics, the second disc containing acoustic works, including two now standard works for clarinet solo. These standard works stand out on the disc as ‘old’, as exceptions to composition dates from 2003 to 2005 for the other works.
Each work on the first disc (‘ClarElectric’) involves a story: Berhard Gander’s ‘Mr. Vertigo’ is inspired by the wholly realistic tale of the art of flying; ‘Strictly Ballroom III’ from Judit Varga examines (rather complexly) the theme of subjective freedom faced with a society of rules; Gerald Futscher sees the activity of rhinoceroses – the way they orient themselves through ‘singing’ – an intriguing way of experiencing the world through one’s ears and appropriately titled his work ‘Hufeisennasen’ or ‘Horseshoe noses’; the graphic score from Christoph Herndler, ‘im Schnitt, der Punkt’ tells no story but contains the possibility of many – particularly through the collision of two points of view – where every point can be a beginning, and nowhere must there be an end; finally the extraordinary ‘trópico tránsito’ from Jorge Sanchez-Chiong brings out the violent memories (through drunkenly mad free-jazz improvisations and electronic effects) of his home city, Caracas, that are often stamped onto his musical environment.
And so the album continues (‘unplugged’) with an impressive work from Beat Furrer for two bass clarinets titled ‘APOKLISIS’ based on extreme instrumental separation and the exploration of unison textures overcoming the aforementioned divide; the two standard works follow, Salvatore Sciarrino’s ‘Let me die before I wake’ and Claudio Ambrosini’s ‘CAPRICCIO, detto: »l’Ermafrodita«’. Sciarrino’s work is a beautiful essay using quiet overtones above fingered dyadic motives as the core musical material and Ambrosini’s rollick ‘after the hermaphrodite’ affirms it’s worth as a central and highly influential work in the bass clarinet œuvre. The final offering is from Bertl Mütter: ‘nushu’ for two bass clarinets. One follows this prolific work through a prologue, five movements and an epilogue – each one incredibly intimate and naturalistic – a far cry from the electronics and abstract ideas of the earlier music.
Without doubt, one can say that Petra and Heinz-Peter have produced an extraordinary musical journey, exhibiting their supreme skill in the interpretation of recent music and innovative, outstanding clarinet playing. The music of the seven Austrian composers is testament to the country’s well-known history of fine composition and its support of the art form. born to be off-road embarks upon a strongly defined navigation of steep, rocky, unforgiving countryside, unbearably serene twilight and the resonance of moonlight cast upon gently rippling water. This album was winner of the Radio Austria 1 ‘Pasticcio’ prize.
Richard Haynes