Published article for CASS magazine by Alistair Logan
Premiere of Concerto "Ambidexterity" for clarinet by Roma
Cafolla
Ewenny Priory 21st August 2004 7.30p.m.
Soloist: Leslie Craven with The Vale of Glamorgan Ensemble.
Mozart - Stadler ; Weber - Bärmann ; Brahms - Mühlfeld
... Clarinettists owe some of the finest works to such partnerships of composer
and performer, and it was the lyrical playing of W.N.O Principal Clarinettist
Leslie Craven that rekindled the creative spark of Roma Cafolla, dormant
for many years on account of illness, family commitments and the Troubles
in Northern Ireland.
The Historic, clean, whitewashed church of Ewenny Priory was the timeless
backdrop for a delightful concert by The Vale of Glamorgan Ensemble on 21st
August, which included the first professional public performance of Roma
Cafolla's "Ambidexterity" for clarinet, strings, and harp doubling
piano. The opening movement has a tense and sultry tango feel, the insistent
clarinet motif is reminiscent of a gavotte. A chorale-like middle section
leads to a reprise which is almost entirely clarinet cadenza.
The slow movement is the emotional hub of the piece. It follows in the
tradition of the Adagietto of Mahler's 5th Symphony and the Barber Adagio
for Strings in being not a hair-tearing, but a deeply thoughtful lament in
a major key, a coming to terms with grief. Its long melody, ornate with scalic
arabesques, beautifully shaded by Leslie Craven, produced a memorable effect.
The finale - originally a piece in its own right (which gave rise to the
name of the concerto "Ambidexterity") is a frolicsome, jazzy, light
hearted - jig-tarantella, though not without darker undertones and again
with contrasting chorale-like sections. This original and warmly romantic
work sounded highly virtuosic in the hands of Mr. Craven, though, like the
Weber concertos it is skillfully written for the clarinet, and with some
slight modification of the cadenza, (in which the composer gave permission
to Leslie Craven to add some complex pyrotechnic passages) would be accessible
to a good Grade 8 student. There is a companion piece by Roma Cafolla for
the same combination with the autobiographical title: "Lost Childhood ",
also, a Sonata for Clarinet & Piano and a Saxophone concerto, a trio
(called "Arcanum") for Clarinet 'Cello and Piano and several works
called "Romantics" for Clarinet, Viola and Piano. To judge by this
work, we can only hope for more.
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