This lunchtime programme combines two of the most significant works for solo clarinet and electronics in a thought-provoking and arresting aural feast. Fresh from a performance of Boulez’s epic ‘Dialogue de l’ombre double’ at the Belfast Sonorities Festival, Robert Plane has further performances of this masterpiece at the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival and at the Stoller Hall in Manchester in the coming months, in partnership with electro-acoustic expert Odilon Marcenaro.
Having recorded his own ‘shadow’ tracks for this performance he has now taken on the challenge of recording the ten clarinet parts that support the live solo clarinet in Steve Reich’s minimalist classic. Boulez dedicated his work to Luciano Berio on his 60th birthday and Berio’s own large scale work can form an ideal companion piece in this programme, although for concerts of less than an hour in length, Stravinsky’s classic Three Pieces, from which the whole tradition of works for solo clarinet grows, is a perfect fit.

Video: Robert Plane (clarinet and pre-recorded clarinet) – Boulez Dialogue De l’ombre double. Filmed at Corbridge Festival 2018 by Odilon Marcenaro.