Michèle Tossi / ResMusica
Bach, Berio, Boulez with Marek Švejkar on clarinet
Luciano Berio, often considered the “double shadow” of Pierre Boulez during the festivities surrounding the so-called “Generation 25,” is celebrated here on equal footing with his colleague and friend (two works by each) by Marek Švejkar and his clarinet in a recording that reveals the full extent of the performer’s talent.
Vast, multifaceted, and deeply human, the art of Luciano Berio envelops us in Lied, a title that evokes a genre - as is often the case with the Italian composer - though here without words. The sound of the clarinet is gentle as a caress, with the reiterated endings of phrases that seem to stylize the ornamental manner of Monteverdi. Lied is a jewel whose line Švejkar’s clarinet follows with the utmost delicacy. In Sequenza IXa (1980), his instrument purrs, blazes like a fanfare, and sings in its throaty register (the chalumeau), setting long, high, and clear sustained notes against buzzing figures in the middle register. The performer heightens these contrasts with commanding tone, a keen sense of dynamics, and a virtuosic ease that captivates the listener.
Like many of his contemporaries, Boulez was drawn to the clarinet for its extreme agility. For the instrument he composed two major works featured on this CD. Domaines was originally conceived as a piece for solo clarinet, written in the 1960s, when the concept of the “open work” began to emerge - an idea central to the piece’s design. Boulez devised a system of six loose pages and several pathways left to the performer’s choice, according to what he called “controlled freedom.” The musical line is fragmented, proceeding through islands of sound, with particular attention paid to the character of the sound itself (quarter-tone fluctuations, trills, or tremolos), to dynamics that sculpt the space, and to the quality of tone - smooth or grainy (Flatterzunge), pure, chordal (multiphonics), or saturated with breath. These are varied states of sonic matter that the performer’s playing renders with remarkable flexibility. In Miroir (the second section), the clarinetist plays the part again while reading it backwards - a child’s play for the performer, who executes it with the same commitment, aided by a welcome reverberant acoustic.
Boulez reworked the material of Domaines in Dialogue de l’ombre double (1985), a gift for Berio’s sixtieth birthday. The number six remains sovereign: six strophes for the live clarinet, played “in the spotlight,” which dialogues with its shadow - seven interventions of the offstage clarinet (pre-recorded by the performer), heard in the dark through six loudspeakers. The alternation is perceptible to the ear despite the absence of the spatial and lighting staging inherent to the work, and it allows for several delicious overlaps and superimpositions, such as the high C at the end of the trajectory where the two “characters” ultimately merge. Marek Švejkar’s playing is flawless: one admires the homogeneity of his timbre, the eloquence of his musical discourse, and the elegance of figures drawn in space with a finesse and precision that hold the listener’s attention throughout the 22 minutes of the recording - four minutes longer than that of his predecessor Alain Damiens on Deutsche Grammophon.
The presence of Johann Sebastian Bach at the midpoint of the CD in no way seems out of place. Bach is invoked both by Berio - particularly in his Sequenza for violin - and by Boulez (“Moments de J. S. Bach”), who revered the composer’s powerfully unified technique of form. Marek Švejkar has chosen the Partita in A minor BWV 1013 (1720) in four movements, originally written for flute. One appreciates the purity of tone and careful articulation in the Allemande, the lightness and airy character of the Corrente, the roundness of timbre and forward sweep of the phrase in the Sarabande, and the rhythmic grounding of the Bourrée anglaise, which drives straight ahead: a self-evident sense of style and a captivating sound.