Kristen Mather de Andrade: As Bright As The Skies Are Blue
kmdamusic

Solo and duo performances are by their very nature intimate and revealing, such qualities doing much to compensate for the absence of timbres a chamber-styled ensemble would add to an arrangement. On her self-released As Bright As The Skies Are Blue, New York-based clarinetist Kristen Mather de Andrade performs three pieces, one unaccompanied and the others pairing her, respectively, with percussionist David Bergman and seven-string guitarist César Garabini. One clear benefit is that with only one or two players involved, the settings allow the playing to be heard with maximum clarity. Any deficiencies in a musician's technique are quickly exposed in a solo or duo arrangement, but one would have to look very hard indeed to find any such crack in Mather de Andrade's armour. It's no exaggeration to say that her mesmerizing playing is one of the best things about the release.

Look no further for proof than the setting South African composer Surendran Reddy (1962-2010) wrote for solo clarinet in 1996, Game I for Lîla. While its writing stemmed in part from his elation over the end of apartheid, it primarily originated out of a more everyday experience: seeing a young girl, practicing tennis alone, hitting her ball against a wall. Reddy translates this activity into musical form by having the soloist alternate rapidly between higher and lower patterns, a challenge Mather de Andrade meets handsomely. Reddy's five-minute piece provides a magnificent springboard for the clarinetist when patterns swoop acrobatically before settling into a rhythmic to-and-fro between treble and bass melodies (he even manages to sneak in a reference to the opening glissando in Rhapsody in Blue).

As strong is the four-part As Bright As The Skies Are Blue, written by Seattle-based David Reeves (b. 1973) in response to a commission by Mather de Andrade. It reunites her with percussionist Bergman, a longtime friend and colleague from the United States Military Academy's West Point Band, which she played in full-time before embarking on a solo career. Being a percussionist himself, Reeves is well-qualified to produce a piece for clarinet and percussion. The work's parts draw from music and dance associated with four different regions of Africa, hence the movement titles “West,” South,” and so on.

“North” inaugurates the work ponderously with the clarinetist alone before Bergman enters, his hand drums, bells, and cymbals immediately locating the music in Africa and the music growing increasingly sinuous. “East” swings even more infectiously when Mather de Andrade's accompanied by Bergman's balafon and shaker colourations. Whereas the charm factor goes way up for “South” when she and her kalimba-wielding partner conduct a spirited duet, “West” appeals too, for both its vocal murmurings and the joyful dance episode that follows.

January 2023