Chicago Clarinet Classics

Description

John Bruce Yeh, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's celebrated assistant principal clarinet and solo E-flat clarinet for over 40 years, headlines a program of lyrical and engaging chamber and solo works by noteworthy Windy City compos-ers of the past and present, including three world-premiere recordings.
Yeh, with Patrick Godon, the Chicago Symphony's principal keyboardist, and freelance clarinetist Teresa Reilly, who per-forms with the CSO at home and on tour, presents mid-20th-century works by Alexander Tcherepnin and Leo Sowerby, a late-century work by Robert Muczynski, and recent pieces by Stacy Garrop, Shulamit Ran, and clarinetist Reilly.
World-premiere recordings include the album's centerpiece, Sowerby's witty and inventive 1938 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano; Ran's tender, heartfelt Spirit for solo B-flat Clarinet; and Reilly's The Forgiveness Train for two clarinets, an insistently rhythmic, pandemic-fueled dreamscape about personal peril amid natural beauty.
Garrop's dramatic Phoenix Rising -- a world-premiere recording of the version for clarinet -- depicts the fiery death and triumphant rebirth of the Phoenix of Greek and Egyptian myth. The album opens with Tcherepnin's vivacious Sona-ta in one movement for clarinet and piano. Muczynski's Time Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, a popular repertoire staple, brings the program to a brilliant close.