Impressionen

Item details

Description +
- Duration: 10 min.
  
  The clarinet concert “Impressions” was written in the summer of 2000 and was premiered as laureate of the composing competition within the framework of the 3rd national music festival in Friedrichshafen of the Radio Orchestra Leipzig.
  
  The work is formally inspired by the three movements of a classical concert, however, performs these within one single movement; the virtuoso cadence of the solo instrument is composed. The language of tone is Romantic-Impressionistic and wants to paint its pictures – impressions – with all the possible range of colours of the solo instrument and all the facets the orchestra has to offer. A great role is appointed to the contrast and, at the same time, dialogue of musical characters.
  
  I was inspired to write “Impressions” by a stay in the South of France. With its mountains, rivers and its Mediterranean flair, the Provence has left a lasting impression on me. The piece wants to take players, as well as listeners, on a journey through the colourful landscape full of scent and invites them to let sounds turn into pictures. Nonetheless, “Impressions” is not a programmatic piece of music.
  
  The orchestral part is of easy - intermediate difficulty. The solo part is challenging, a piano reduction is available for rehearsals or for chamber music performances.
  
  Price includes conductor score and parts
  Conductor score, parts and piano reduction: 120 Euro
Instrumentation +
- Solo Clarinet in Bb and Orchestra
  
  2 Flutes
  2 Oboes
  2 Clarinets in Bb
  2 Bassoons
  2 Horn in F
  Timpani
  Strings
About the composer +
- The composer and conductor Thomas Martin Johannes Schäfer draws his tonal language from all styles and forms of the last millennium and tries to create a new tonal language in this way. For him, composition is both improvisation and construction, cognitive play with the possibilities as well as impulsiveness and intuition. He defines his musical language as postmodern.
  
  Thomas M. J. Schäfer was born in 1979 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Southern Germany. He completed his studies at the music academies in Stuttgart with Prof. Jon Laukvik and in Munich with Prof. Bruno Weil and graduated in 2008 with a master class diploma in orchestral conducting. He led numerous orchestras, including the Munich Symphony Orchestra, was choir director of the Junge Oper at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where he also took part in world premieres such as Randolphs Erben by Ruedi Häusermann. Since 2008 he is responsive as the main church musician at St. Josef Böbingen, he works as an organist and piano accompanist and teaches at the Baden-Württemberg Landesgymnasium in Schwäbisch Gmünd. After having co-initiated the youth symphony orchestra Junge Gmünder Symphoniker, he had the honour of conducting the foundation concert.
  
  His works have received international acclaim and have been performed in many countries, for example at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's gala dinner in honor of Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv. For his composition Exultet – Easter Light Thanksgiving, Thomas M. J. Schäfer received personal thanks and recognition from the dedicatee Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
  
  Thomas M. J. Schäfer premiered numerous of his compositions and arrangements with his choirs and orchestras. The Clarinet Concerto Impressions – Concertant Fantasy for Clarinet and Orchestra was awarded second prize at the composition contest of the German Federal Music Festival in 2001, another prize followed in 2018 for the riddle canon JSBach 333.
Reviews +
- Review (Rems Zeitung, May 16, 2017)
  
  A cantabile main theme and a burlesque counterpart – flute parts and solo violins emerge from the Impressionist sound carpet to form a dialogue with the soloist.
Credits +
- Front Cover graphics and layout: Nicola Lee
  Photo: KD Busch
  Engraving: Thomas Martin Johannes Schäfer
  Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark
  Copyright © Edition SVITZER
  www.editionsvitzer.com

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