Duo Cernavca - Schulhoff Poulenc Arnold (2023)

The duo Cernavca - clarinetist Slava Cernavca and pianist Zoryana Tkachyk-Cernavca - have only added a small booklet to their album of jazz-inspired chamber music. In addition to surreal drawings by the pianist herself, reminiscent of the art of the 1920s, it contains a short personal foreword by the duo: "Without adding anything else", they leave it up to their listeners to "discover the unique essence of this music". This offer one gladly accepts, since the Cernavcas know how to let the music speak for itself.

Jazz influences can be felt in varying intensities in the works performed, and it speaks for the sensitivity of the duo to have made this clear. By no means is one mode of interpretation applied to all the pieces, rather each is recorded in its own unique way and presented accordingly.

Erwin Schulhoff has already indicated the strong jazzy coloring of his "Hot Sonata" by the title. It was actually written for saxophone. The fact that at the time this work was composed, around 1930, the clarinet was part of the standard instrument set in jazz bands and not inferior to the saxophone, can be understood from Slava Cernavca's playing. He takes some artistic liberties in the shaping of his voice by frequently adding glissandi and letting the instrument whine characteristically on selected top notes. The deliberately dry touch of his partner also contributes to the idiomatic effect of her interpretation, which is otherwise highly disciplined. Both are apparently well aware of what they have in front of them: a stylized classical sonata.

Her assured taste is also evident in the performance of the following works. Like Schulhoff, Francis Poulenc, who found his style at the same time, owes important inspiration to popular music of the 1920s. However, unlike the work of his generation comrade, his clarinet sonata does not make any demonstrative reference to jazz vocabulary, even if this is sometimes subliminally noticeable in harmony and rhythm. The Cernavcas don't try to bring more of that into the piece either. You notice this especially in the piano. The secco tone that Zoryana Tkachyk-Cernavca consistently maintained in the Schulhoff Sonata gives way here to a liquid brilliance with a more subtle attack. The sudden changes with which Poulenc surprises again and again in the course of the work are worked out by both of them in a richly contrasting way.

In contrast to Poulenc's comparatively serious sonata, which only adopts a carefree tone in the finale, the sonatina by Malcolm Arnold, who is a generation younger, is dominated by cheerfulness and wit right from the start. You can also hear the jazz impact a little stronger here. This is reflected in the interpretation insofar as the musicians choose a middle ground between the approaches presented by Schulhoff and Poulenc and make jazzy things clear as such where they emerge. The flawless interaction of clarinetist and pianist and the versatility of both benefit this short and varied piece as well as the other works on the recording.

The program comes to an end after just 44 minutes with Schulhoff's Fox song Susi. I would have liked to have listened to the Cernavca duo longer.