CD “Clarinet”
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- “Luca has a tone and techniques that give him an exeptional range, from the deep and reflective (Divertimento #7) to the brave and experimental (Divertimento #9). Masterful performance!”
(MUSICIAN Magazine)
- “I love the new reconrding VERY much!!!” Barry O’Sullivan (CRN Network Australia)
- “Compliments, you are great! Clarinet is a wonderful CD.” Gianluigi Trovesi (clarinettist, ECM)
- “Great stuff!!! Come on-air to present it.” Martin Perlich (KCSN Classical Radio, USA)
We are pleased to present “Clarinet”, the latest album by the clarinetist/composer Luca Luciano “Masterful Clarinet” by Musician Magazine.
Luca is very much appreciated in the UK and abroad for his unique style and the quality of his compositions and this latest project keeps faith to his uncompromised and sometimes controversial approach to music and the will to experiment. The CD, MCPS Licensed, is mainly for promotional use and on-line download and it is available in limited edition only. “Clarinet” is and independent production by Luca Luciano and Gianni Varone who is also responsible for the distribution and selling of the Digidesign equipments in Italy.
The main “theme” of this project is the composer Igor Stravinsky and in particular “The Rite of Spring” which has inspired Luciano so much. As a homage to the great Russian composer, some small quotations are present from his music (including “the Firebird”) and also Mahler’s (second symphony), Berio’s Sequenza and Ravel’s in the two Sequenze, in Divertimento #7, Divertimento #10 and “Naima”.
Luciano’s sound has been built on a vintage “Bb” Buffet clarinet which bears more keys and rings (20 keys and 7 rings) than the “regular” French clarinet (generally 17-18 keys and 6 rings) and goes a semitone lower as well. The instrument, then, is slightly longer than an “A” clarinet which explains its darker tone, versatility and more hybrid tone, almost like a Basset Clarinet, that fits so much Luca’s style. Yet the extra keys and extension give him the chance to create sound effects otherwise almost impossible to generate (e.g. Divertimento #4 and Divertimento #9).
The two Sequenze for Clarinet Solo are the core of the album and have been inspired by the famous line by Gustav Mahler’s “A symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything”. Luciano tries in this remarkable, pure improvisational journey to embrace all styles of music he loves in an imaginative tour around the world from classical European music to Afro-American or folkloristic music of the South of Italy, from contemporary classical music with chromaticism and angular-shaped melodies to lyric and almost operatic atmospheres, from polyphony to blues and swing. In fact Luciano firmly believes in the great potentiality of the clarinet and its expressivity and tries to stretch it to the limit including modulating the tone when necessary (as in the two Sequenze) to make it sound like a “Chalumeau” on the “tarantella” parts or more like an American clarinetist of the 30s and 40s.
The album also includes the famous “Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo”, an arrangement of a famous jazz tune “Naima” and five “Divertimenti” in particular the number 7 on a theme from “Lt. Kije’” by Prokofiev developed into a “canone” before the long improvised cadenza around the “Neapolitan” minor scale of “G” by the soloist and the finale. The two Sequenze and Divertimento #7, #8 and #10 also shows Luca’s interest in free improvisation and chromaticism strongly influenced by the saxophonist and educator Dave Liebman.