Jürg Frey/Apartment House — Clarinet Quintet
Here’s a longform/fifty-four-minute piece from Swiss composer Jürg Frey. This is his first work for a clarinet quintet, and it’s most certainly a sombre to hauntingly simmering affair. The pieces' forlorn, at times poignant melody and structure shift from steady ‘n’ graceful builds, onto cloud-like drifts, through paring back glooming and at points plucking grace, with subtle hints of angularity.
The release appears on the always-worthwhile modern classical/modern composition label Another Timbre, with the piece commissioned by the label's head, Simon Reynell.
The CD is presented in the label's house style, sparse/ mini white gatefold packaging. On its front cover, we have a photograph of a faded/over-painted shop sign, which, for some reason, brought to my mind an old Jewish ghetto. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s the haunting/ forlorn/ yet determined feel of the piece, or the subtle/ stretched out, almost Klezmer feel of the piece's lead melody.
The work was composed between 2023 and 2025. It’s played by members of the highly respected modern ensemble Apartment House. With the players here being Heather Roche- clarinet. Mira Benjamin & Chihiro Ono- violins. Bridget Carey- viola, Anton Lukoszevieze- cello.
The piece runs at fifty-four minutes and thirteen seconds, and throughout I was completely and utterly spellbound. As it rewardingly shifts from building-yet- grim grace, onto drifting ‘n’ felt dwells, though to moments of sparse pluck and simmering hover.
The piece is skilfully mapped out in its rises, drifts, and pare backs. Throughout that key melody and shape, at points is just holding on. The Apartment House give a wonderful interpretation of the pieces' ebb and flow, with, of course, their usual instrumental flair, understanding, and emotion
Since its release in April of this year, I’ve kept returning again and again to this piece, seeming never tiring of its forlorn determination and persistent sad grace. Easily one of this year's classical music highlights.