Pierce-Aomori Duo & Daniel Barrett - Beethoven, Burgmuller, Draeseke and Mendelssohn: Music for Clarinet and Piano (2010)

This CD provides a survey of the development of the literature for the clarinet in chamber music over an almost hundred year period. The clarinet was not used regularly in orchestral and chamber music until the late eighteenth century. Mozart was the first major composer to write for the instrument. His collaboration with the clarinetist Anton Stadler produced the Trio, K. 498, the Quintet, K. 581, and the Concerto, K. 622. Johann Baptist Vanhal, Anton Eberl, Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries, Schubert, Weber and Spohr all wrote for the clarinet in the decades following Mozart’s death. During the 1830s, a younger generation of composers, including Felix Mendelssohn and Norbert Burgmüller, contributed to the literature for the instrument. Later in the century, Felix Draeseke and Josef Rheinberger wrote sonatas for clarinet and piano and Max Bruch wrote a concerto for clarinet and viola.

Hideaki Aomori is one of the most creative and sought-after multi-instrumentalists of his generation, with concert performances and recording credits spanning an unusually wide range of genres and artists, including contemporary classical music to jazz, pop music and film scores. The Pierce-Aomori duo was Aomori’s first collaborative experience, the recording beautifully capturing his love for traditional chamber music. Aomori is a founding member of the acclaimed chamber sextet yMusic, a group of six New York City-based instrumentalists flourishing in the overlap between the pop and classical worlds.

Joshua Pierce is a unique pianist with a special perspective on the chamber repertoire. Having studied with cellist Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio and pianist Artur Balsam, himself highly regarded as a chamber musician, Pierce possesses a rare creative sensitivity stemming from his work in a full range of contemporary, romantic and classical repertoire. Pierce’s extensive career includes solo performances, chamber performances, and appearances with orchestras all over the world, including the Royal Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, London Symphony, Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Moscow State Philharmonic, Czech Radio Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Slovak Philharmonic, Slovak National Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Orchestra of RAI in Rome, and the Utah Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Missouri Symphony and Chicago Sinfonietta. Additionally, he has performed with Russia’s Leontovich String Quartet, with violinist Misha Vitenson and cellist Jeffrey Solow, the Capella Istropolitana of Slovakia, the New York Empire Trio and numerous other chamber ensembles.

Daniel Barrett has a long history of performance with Joshua Pierce going back to the American Microtonal Festival and Mr. Pierce’s long association with John Cage. He has performed as soloist for Radio France, the Gulbenkian Festival in Portugal, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, and WQXR, the classical radio station of the New York Times. He has recorded solo and ensemble work of Yannis Xenakis for the Mode and Vanderberg labels, for the Irish ensemble Cherish the Ladies on RCA and for the national television station PBS. As a conductor, he has led the New York Bach Ensemble, the Absolute Ensemble Chamber Players, James Joyce’s “The Dead” on Broadway, the Ethos Ensemble, the Sound Liberation Chamber Ensemble, He has composed works for the the West Virginia Symphony, The North/ South Consonance, Sound Liberation, and National Public Broadcasting.