Brahms Clarinet Trio
Among many of my arrangements I have done over the years, I must say playing the Brahms Clarinet Trio in March 2020 in Los Angeles was one of the enjoyable and memorable performances I have done over the years. The four concerts were supposed to have happened right on the week California made an annoucement about social distancing followed by President Trump’s declaration of State of Emergency. After performing the two concerts, we have decided we are unable continue any longer.
Out of the two performances we did, I extremely was appreciative of the audiences, who were familiar with this piece and was open to listening to my new arrangement, not on the clarinet but on the alto saxophone. I also had such great time with the musicians I got to work with. Cellist, Evan Drachman is an incredible player who has toured all over the world. As the founder of the Piatigorsky Foundation and along with his grandfather Gregor Piatigorsky’s Stradivarius, he performs and attracts wide number of audiences. Pianist, Mary Au is such a sensitive pianist I’ve worked with her for this past 6 years. Since he has worked with many singers and string players, including Alice and Elenor Schoenfeld Sisters, Anne Akiko Meyers, to name a few, her knowledge and sensitivity to music is very impressive.
The arrangement was not easy but visualizing the sound and the color of the clarinet helped me a lot when I was tackling this piece. The range of the clarinet is much wider than the saxophone so it required me to take things up or down an octave, and to some extent alter some phrases. I was even fixing some notes during our two rehearsals we had before our first performance. I am glad I had that great moment of creating music before the world had completely changed over this past month and a half.
I have been working furiously arranging existing classical pieces on the saxophone at this time of stay-at-home in Japan. I am hoping, in the days we can freely travel and hold concerts again, I get to share my beautiful arrangements.