Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Typical of the concerto genre, Nytch’s work is cast in three movements; the piece also follows concerto style with its arrangement of movements in the order of fast-slow-fast. Rapid, rhythmic leaps from the solo clarinet begin the first movement of the concerto, which features thick, rich orchestral textures and a dialogue between tutti and soloist. The leaping, playfully disjunct melodic figures from the opening measures return frequently throughout the first movement, interspersed between more lyrical passages.

Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Brouwer’s relatively short concerto is in two movements, with a strongly dualistic character. From the quiet, almost elegiac opening measures of the first movement, Prelude, complete with bells, Margaret Brouwer’s concerto quickly builds in intensity, but it is a restrained intensity: dark strings underlie an expressive, but often subdued solo clarinet. It soon becomes apparent that the seemingly reserved and gentle clarinet passages belie that fact that the instrument is, at times either being pushed to the top of its range or‹with its bent, slurred, and overblown notes‹to the limits of its expressive capabilities.

Culinary Concerto for Clarinet
Nelson’s Culinary Concerto for Clarinet is cast in four movements. The opening movement, "Brothy Frothy," begins with an enormous orchestral build-up - the layering of a thunderous atonal chord - before the clarinet is introduced. The clarinet is not used as a traditional solo instrument, nor is the orchestra used as mere accompaniment: the soloist is not simply playing virtuosic music against orchestral support, but rather immediately joins the overall texture, floating in and out of focus.

Going Home
The most remarkable feature of this piece - a kind of single-movement concerto for piano and clarinet, but a decidedly untraditional one - is the rapid shifting between musical genres: the work begins as a large-scale orchestral work, but soon metamorphoses into a jazz-flavored piece, complete with solos for both piano and clarinet. Both solo instruments shift effortlessly between idioms, as quasi-improvised wailing clarinet melodies and bluesy bass-runs in the piano suddenly give way to more controlled, conventional orchestral textures and melodies, which then soon blend back again into jazzy, soloistic passages. The full range and expressive possibilities of each instrument are explored in this hybrid work:…