![]() ![]() In a final effort to snuff out the interloping doppelgänger, the live clarinet plays that same pitch while walking “off stage.” The work ends with the electronic shadow largely neutralized, extending a sustained high arrival pitch in the live part as the clarinet launches into a furious cadenza. As with so many masterworks of the electro-acoustic genre, the relationship between live and pre-recorded becomes dynamic in its own right, evolving over the course of the piece. Boulez’ exploration of texture and material on the clarinet is deft and exhaustive, as the dialogue turns into a terse argument between the increasingly agitated live clarinet and its persistent double. The mixing on this recording captures this spatial quality beautifully – one minute we hear Lee as if she is right in front of us, while the next she is placed further back in the stereo field, seemingly in a corner, evoking the piece’s mercurial twists and turns. The work was dedicated to Luciano Berio on his 60th birthday and places the live clarinetist in dialogue with a “double shadow” electronic version of themselves, spatialized to lend a sense of physical interaction. Read Moreįujikura’s final gesture segues perfectly into the uneasy irregular gestures that open Boulez’ Dialogue. ![]() The piece ends with an alternating major second toggling back and forth in indecision as it fades away. A passage of repeated double tongued pitches opens into a contrasting section that is more impetuous, eventually highlighting playfully syncopated rhythms. Flowing lines undulate up and down, the gravity of the melodic contour occasionally accelerating the pace towards a goal note. The opening track, Dai Fujikura’s Contour for bass clarinet, originally written for tuba in 2018 and revised for contrabass clarinet and bass clarinet versions in 2020, begins the album with a monologue. The clarinet, in its B-flat and bass clarinet incarnations, manifests itself as a sage companion, its rich fundamental, hints of breath noises, and subtle sounds of depressed keys creating an ideal blend of the cerebral and the expressive in this thoughtful collection. Framed by Pierre Boulez’ iconic Dialogue de l’ombre double for clarinet and electroacoustic doppelgänger, Lee shapes a program that engages with the dichotomy between dialogue and monologue. And yet, Lee’s musical voice reaches out consistently throughout the album, presenting these pieces not as distant, unreachable gems but as tangible musical parables and narratives. In her program note for Conversations With Myself, Alicia Lee writes that the works presented feature her “monologuing dramatically” and “delivering advice to anyone who would listen.” As with so many albums being released in 2022, this release has been deeply shaped by the isolation of the pandemic and the restrictions on performing music with others. ![]()
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