New Classical Tracks: Unusual trio plays 'Borrowed Treasures'
There aren't too many pieces originally written for flute, clarinet, and guitar. On a new CD, JoAnn Falletta and friends increase that repertoire with some attractive new arrangements.
JoAnn Falletta is music director of both the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony, which would be enough to keep any good conductor busy. Yet Falletta still manages to find time to make her own music.
Falletta started playing guitar on her 7th birthday and was hooked. That's one reason she formed a trio with her husband, clarinetist Robert Alemany, and the principal flutist of the Virginia Symphony, Debra Wendells Cross.
In all of her musical research, Falletta has discovered only one piece in the repertoire actually written for this combination, a grand trio of Joseph Kreuzter.
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To highlight the unique sound palette of these three instruments, and to increase the repertoire options, she's composed several of her own arrangements. These are of familiar orchestral works for flute, clarinet and guitar. Falletta calls them "Borrowed Treasures," and they're featured on her latest release of the same name.
Transcribing music is a hobby for Falletta. Her transcriptions on this new release are a welcome addition to the repertoire. As a conductor, Falletta is the glue that holds a performance together. In these transcriptions she serves a similar role as guitarist.
While the clarinet and flute trade barbs in works like Bizet's Bohemian Dance from the opera "Carmen," the guitar establishes the pace and the rhythm.
The operatic works on "Borrowed Treasures" are my favorites. Falletta's guitar mimics the drum roll at the opening of Rossini's Overture, "The Thieving Magpie." It might be hard to imagine this full orchestral overture pared down to just three instruments, but these simple instruments manage to fill out the sound quite nicely.
Two minutes into this 10-minute piece, the clarinet and flute swirl into delightful musical conversation. Robert Alemany's clarinet tone is so rich and blends so exquisitely with Debra Wendells Cross's expressive flute, that it's hard to believe he only makes music part-time, when he's not working as a computer scientist.
Falletta's guitar once again serves as the conduit that keeps the musical exchange flowing.
On her right hand, JoAnn Falletta sports nicely sculpted fingernails. Just as an oboist fusses over the perfect reed, Falletta says her fingernails act as natural guitar picks. The way she shapes them determines the color of the sound she gets from her instrument.
She offers a good demonstration of the versatility of these sculpted nails at the very beginning of the final piece on "Borrowed Treaures." It's a Tarantella by Camille Saint-Saens written originally for piano, clarinet and flute.
Substituting the guitar is a natural fit for this swirling Italian dance. The musical textures intensify as the flute, clarinet, and guitar rapidly dance around one another.
Two centuries ago it was said the Tarantella was a cure for tarantism, an uncontrollable urge to dance caused by a tarantula bite. With this arrangement for clarinet, flute and guitar the urge to dance is difficult to avoid.
After listening to "Borrowed Treasures," it's clear JoAnn Falletta, Richard Alemany and Debra Wendells Cross love making music together. Falletta's unique transcriptions for guitar, flute and clarinet not only enhance the joy of music-making for these three musicians, they give the listener a chance to explore some familiar works in a new way.
