CASS Clarinet and Saxophone, Winter 2018

When it comes to the clarinet players whose careers I follow and whose CDs I eagerly anticipate, I am increasingly inspired by two things: 1. those who are interested in pushing clarinet writing into something that is both extreme and idiomatic to the instrument, either through their collaborations with composers or through their own compositions, and 2. women who are active soloists, chamber musicians and visible role models for the next generation of clarinettists. Petra Stump-Linshalm embodies these two aspects perfectly.

Born in Austria, she started to play the clarinet at the request of her grandmother, who loved the instrument. In general, Stump-Linshalm has a love for wind instruments, evidenced by her career as a performer (her chamber music groups include a duo with clarinettist Heinz-Peter Linshalm and she is a member of the Vienna Reed Quintet), her teaching (she is lecturer in chamber music for winds at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna) and her compositions (her latest CD, Fantasy Studies, which can be heard on Spotify, features work for clarinets, flutes, recorders and saxophones).

Stump-Linshalm discovered contemporary music through the bass clarinet: her favourite instrument, ‘the most beautiful of them all’. She moved to Amsterdam in 1997 to study the bass clarinet with the late Harry Spaarnay, and contemporary music was unavoidable: original music for the bass clarinet is, as a result of the instrument’s late development, new. She began studying the existing works for the instrument, and with increasing frequency she began to be involved in the process of creation, working in collaboration with composers and finding the experience illuminating. New music, through engaging with the present, holds up a mirror to our time, she thinks: and she finds this as interesting now as she did when she was a student.

In collaboration with her duo partner, Heinz-Peter Linshalm, she wrote a book on playing new music for young clarinettists called Clarinet Update (published
by Doblinger). Tragically only available in German, the book provides a wonderful introduction to multiphonics, bisbigliandi (microtonal trills), glissandi, microtones, air sounds and common articulations in new music like flutter tongue and slap tongue. The explanations are clear and entertaining, and new works were commissioned specifically for the book, each one focusing on a specific technique.

She loves her role as a teacher: she loves to see her students discovering new music, and finds that teaching provides the perfect opportunity for self-reflection. She learns as much from her students as they do from her. The aforementioned duo has also been responsible for the commissioning of some fascinating repertoire for two clarinets: in particular the Italian composer Pierluigi Billone’s 1+1=1. A 90-minute long tour de force for two bass clarinets, it’s a beautiful work that absolutely luxuriates in the instrument. I regularly use it to teach composers about writing for the bass clarinet. Their recording (released on Kairos) is exemplary. They’ve also had pieces written for them by composers such as Chaya Czernowin, Beat Furrer and Bernhard Gander.

The recently released album of her own compositions on the Orlando Records label, Fantasy Studies, is a must-have for anyone interested in contemporary music and the various members of the clarinet family. Stump-Linshalm started composing out of sheer curiosity: she wondered, after so many years spent interpreting the music of others, what her own music might sound like. Uisge Beatha, the first piece on the CD, for solo contrabass clarinet, stemmed from time spent improvising on the instrument. In eight movements, it seems to capture all the possibilities of this gentle giant: beyond idiomatic, the piece pulses and soars, playing with different registers and fluidly moving in and out of multiphonic textures.

What’s coming next for Stump-Linshalm? She’s just recorded an LP with her duo partner featuring the work of Alexander Stankovski, and the Vienna Reed Quintet are bringing out a new CD on the Naxos label. She’s also just returned from a composition residency in Alaska and the piece she worked on there, TANALIAN SOUNDS, for piccolo and two bass clarinets (what a combination!) will be premiered in January in Vienna. And she’s just started a new work for the Ensemble des 20. Jahrhunderts, to be premiered at some point next year. Needless to say: we have much to look forward to in following the career of this wonderful artist.