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.