A musical tour of the globe in the capable hands of the Scottish Clarinet Quartet. The well-known Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by naturalized British composer G.F. Handel sets the theme of travel, and sends us across the English Channel to encounter the music of the villages and gypsies of rural France. Passing through the Black Forest to take the Air by Handel’s German contemporary J.S. Bach, we go further East to discover exotic rhythms and instruments in Bulgaria, Borodin’s beautiful Notturno, and celebratory Klezmer music in Russia. Travelling on to the New World in jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman’s footsteps, we swing across New York and California in the company of Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin and Dave Brubeck, before flying south to Argentina for a dancing lesson, the Histoire du Tango. Finally, we sail home over the Atlantic to our own temperate island, to the strains of the cheerful Colonel Bogey march.
Programme
- G.F. Handel – The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
- Henri Tomasi – Three Divertissements
- J.S. Bach / Michael Riessler – Intro/Air
- Mike Curtis – Bulgarian Bat Bite
- Oleg Paiberdin – Sob Out
- Alexander Borodin – Notturno, from String Quartet No.2
- Mike Curtis – A Klezmer Wedding
interval
- Benny Goodman – Four Once More
- Dave Brubeck – Blue Rondo à la Turk
- Stephen Sondheim – Send in the Clowns
- George Gershwin – Oh, Lady Be Good
- Astor Piazzolla – Histoire du Tango
- Ian Holloway – Die Kunst der Klarinette (Variations on ‘Colonel Bogey’)