About a place steeped in history

The title of Martin Schlumpf's Clarinet Quintet, composed in 2012, refers on the one hand to the five movements of the work and on the other to the square of the same name in New York City. In the 1860s, this square was the scene of battles between locals and Irish immigrants, which are depicted in the film The Gangs of New York were adapted for film by Martin Scorsese. Martin Schlumpf's music is effective, versatile and entertaining, but is by no means film music!

The composer writes for the A clarinet and makes full use of its range in both high and low registers. Martin Schlumpf is a clarinettist himself and has always moved between the poles of improvised and composed music (studying with Rudolf Kelterborn and Boris Blacher), as well as teaching theory and improvisation at the Zurich University of the Arts for many years. This broad background is also reflected in his music. In The Five Points echoes of numerous composers and styles can be discerned. There are declared echoes of Brahms' Clarinet Quintet op. 115 in movements 3-5, which appear surprisingly. However, individual sections are also reminiscent of Stravinsky, while folkloristic dances can be heard in other passages, which develop into passages that seem improvised but are composed in detail. Overall, the work has an independent character with expressively heightened expression in places.

The extremely carefully arranged sheet music, published by Edition Kunzelmann, deserves mention. The performers are supported by individual additional pages for leafing through and, where necessary, by engraver's notes for the other instruments. The Five Points is dedicated to the clarinettist Matthias Müller and the Galatea String Quartet, who premiered it and also recorded it for the NEOS label in 2013 (No. 21305).

Martin Schlumpf, The Five Points for clarinet and string quartet, score and parts, score and parts, GM 1891, Fr. 89.00, Edition Kunzelmann, Adliswil 2014