O man, I love those high clarinets when played well. And this guy Dariusz did exactly that! Bravo for tone and expression. And a very nice concerto and orchestra too.
Bravo Eb clarinet performance! I also play Eb clarinet. it’s nice to see this clarinet being celebrated in all its musical glory. It is really a beautiful instrument and is sadly frequently maligned and omitted from some conductors repertoire.
Honestly, this is a very convincing performance. In contrary to some comments here, I rarely have heard a Eb clarinet being played with this clear and pure intonation and the rich, round, "wooden" sound that Bb and A clarinets are effortlessly able to produce (but even some nowadays famous players lack to do). And so, the Eb clarinet is often abused to solely create sharp, flat, squeeking and partly annoying sounds (when it gets put on a race with the piccolo flute, for example, by Shostakovich, but even that has to be played convincingly well). This performance, however, puts this clarinet in its own right as a dignified representative of the higher registered part of the clarinet family (without being classified as just a shrunk "travesty" of it). Thank you very much for this experience!
Elbe is one of the finest players today that can display the best attributes of the high Eb clarinet. His tone, control and lyricism is exemplary and inspirational. Great performance by all. Wonderful.
For those of you wondering and debating, Elbe is using an Eb clarinet, and here's the reason why: it says that the concerto is in A major, but the whole concerto in this video is actually transposed down to Ab major. If you don't believe me, pluck an Ab and listen to the first note played by the strings. If Elbe were to play this same key with a D clarinet, he would be dealing with 4 sharps, but with the Eb, he only has one flat to deal with in his transposition.
Odd that they played the piece in Ab major instead of A. Apparently the soloist didn't have access to a D clarinet. Playing in A major on an Eb clarinet means playing in written F# major, a bit awkward on any clarinet, hence the transposition down a half step so the soloist can play in F major on the Eb clarinet.
