Clarinet and piano

Tuesday evening I drove downtown to photograph the sun setting over the Speed River. The Adagio from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 (1901) came on the radio. I pulled into a parking lot, turned off the engine, sat listening to the solo clarinet express its yearning dialogue with the rippling keyboard, and watched light over the water soften toward dusk.

Although a prominent pianist, Rachmaninoff must have adored the clarinet. He also gave it a drifting, meditative solo in the Adagio of his Symphony No. 2 (1908). These are two of the most romantic slow orchestral movements ever written.

It can be dramatic when a second solo instrument momentarily grabs the spotlight during a concerto. The violin's exuberant outburst during the finale of Dvorak's Cello Concerto comes to mind, also the opening melody of the Andante from Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, presented elegantly and lyrically by the cello. Such diversions require remarkable inspiration and skill to avoid detracting from the primary soloist. If successful, they evoke the passionate interactions of two lovers, and become the most memorable passages of the compositions.

Water and sky also appeared as soulmates, the quietly rippling Speed listening to nostaligic strains of departing Sun.





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