Dear friends, I hope you're well. This week has been very difficult everywhere in the world and also in France, where we're enduring a new lockdown because of the COVID second wave. There are so many reasons to be anxious these days, about the health of our families, about our threatened jobs, about the always more precarious place of artists in our societies. And if it was not enough, the city of Nice was the theater of a horrible terrorist attack a few days ago... That's why I would like to dedicate this beautiful melody by Rachmaninov to all victims and people in pain, and all human beings praying for a better future.
This "Vocalise" composed and published in 1912 as the last of his 14 Romances, Op. 34. Originally written for high voice (soprano or tenor) with piano accompaniment, it contains no words, but is sung using only one vowel of the singer's choosing. It was dedicated to soprano singer Antonina Nezhdanova. The piece was such a success that the composer himself transcribed it for violin and orchestra, and many arrangers made their own version for various ensembles.
As I often get questions about my clarinets (which are unfortunately not mine except the old Bb Festival) and setups, I'm playing this time a boxwood Légende in A (Vandoren BD4 and V12 3,5) for the solo part, a Buffet Légende Green Line in Bb, a Buffet Festival in Bb, a Buffet Tosca bass clarinet (Vandoren B40 and V12 3,5) and an old Buffet contrabass clarinet from 1935 (Leblanc Mouthpiece).
I hope you'll like it !
Take care and stay safe ❤