Simon Bainbridge, Chamber Music. String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2, Cheltenham Fragments, Clarinet Quintet. Linda Merrick, Clarinet; Kreutzer Quartet. Released on CD by Toccata Classics.
- Submitting institution
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Royal Northern College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 31B
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- St Michael's, Highgate, London
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of first performance
- February
- Year of first performance
- 2021
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- Yes
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- This output was affected by COVID-19. The recording took place on 3 March 2020, but the planned performance with Q&A at the RNCM on 1 May 2020 was cancelled due to the national ban on public performances. The ensemble made a recording of a rehearsal publicly available in 2020. The CD recording, which would have been released in 2020, was also subject to pandemic delays and was released in February 2021.
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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5 - Performance
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This recording of Simon Bainbridge’s Clarinet Quintet builds on my continuing research exploring collaboration between composers and performers. As the work was already in the public domain, our collaboration focused on working closely with the composer to develop a new interpretation and achieve a definitive performance.
The quintet is extremely challenging technically, requiring the performers to adopt a range of innovative approaches to create a convincing musical outcome. Examples include the opening section, which features a gradual ascent in the clarinet part into the extreme altissimo register, where pitches are sustained for an extended time at extremely low dynamics. This required me to rethink fundamentally how I would execute this passage, with adjusted fingerings and embouchure combined with careful consideration to breathing. The composer’s endorsement regarding timbre and phrasing was critical to ensure that my radical approach met his musical aspirations.
Substantive sections of the quintet feature difficult rapid passage work and repeated ostinato patterns. Understanding Bainbridge’s concept, where the dynamics and overall sense of direction are of equal importance to clarity and definition, was essential to enable us to perform these with conviction.
The intricate cross-rhythms that characterise much of the work are very challenging for the ensemble, and sometimes exacerbated by complex notation. Our aspiration for accuracy had inadvertently compromised the degree of fluidity and flexibility Bainbridge had envisaged. His mandate in rehearsal to relax our approach in order to achieve more expansive musical lines, while maintaining the level of rhythmic accuracy indicated through his notation, proved a defining point in our interpretation. It also reflected how the written score can act as a barrier between performer and composer and the benefits of collaboration to achieve a convincing and authoritative outcome. The recording was made in March 2020 and released on the Toccata Classics label in February 2021.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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