Esteemed clarinetist David Shifrin illustrates the virtuosity of chamber music in Atlanta

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January 19th, 2023

Renowned clarinetist David Shifrin will perform with the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta from Jan. 20-21. (Photo courtesy of ECMSA)

 When pianist Will Ransom wanted to form a chamber music society in Atlanta, he approached David Shifrin for advice, with good reason — in the chamber music firmament, clarinetist David Shifrin is among the brightest stars. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1982, served as artistic director of that storied organization for a dozen years, and currently is the artistic director of Yale’s Oneppo Chamber Music series, as well as the “Yale in New York” concert series. Mr. Schiffrin also maintains an active career as a concert soloist and teaches at the Yale School of Music. He’ll perform with the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta, Jan. 20-21. Ahead of those concerts, he joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to share some of the history and appeal of chamber music.

Interview highlights:

How chamber music reflects friendships from centuries past:

“The clarinetist that Mozart wrote for Anton Stadler, or the clarinetist that Brahms wrote for, Ricard Mühlfeld, had really diverse careers. Stadler played in the Vienna Opera and played symphonically. Mozart included clarinet parts in his opera orchestra because of his friend Stadler… Stadler played the concerto of Mozart, which is a crown jewel in his concerto repertoire, and Brahms heard Mühlfeld playing Mozart’s concerto and was inspired to write his chamber works, which brings me around to the personal nature of the extensive repertory for chamber ensembles, where composers wrote some of their most compelling personal masterpieces for musicians that they were very closely aligned with, writing for musicians that they knew as well as for themselves to play.” 

“I think Brahms is one of the greatest examples because in almost all of his piano chamber music, he was the pianist. He played with Mühlfeld, he played with [Robert] Hausmann, the cellist, he played with Joseph Joachim, the violinist; and when you hear his sonatas and his trios and his quintets, you can just imagine him sitting there with his cigar and playing these in incredible works with musicians that he had known for years and years, and were kind of extensions of his own creative self. So being a chamber musician and being involved in works that were conceived in that kind of a way is very stimulating, as well as having the chance to take on all of the roles within one endeavor.”

Chamber music as an example of collective virtuosity:

“Most chamber music is done without a conductor, so it’s a collaborative effort, and it gives the chamber musician a chance to be in what is probably one of the most meaningful experiments in democracy, when all the members of a group have a voice in how a work is going to be interpreted and performed. So I found that over the years to be the most stimulating and rewarding aspect of my career,” Shifrin said.

The recently-invented clarinet, shining in Mozart’s “Quintet for Clarinet in Strings”:

“It is difficult to name an aspect of a masterpiece that makes it perfect, so I think I have to go down a list,” said Shifrin. “Mozart’s quintet was, first of all, an innovation. There was no music that I’m aware of for a string quartet adding a clarinet prior to Mozart’s composition of this work, but it became one of his most beloved works. It has colors that never existed before. It has structure that’s perfect, with four movements in sequence that complement each other so beautifully. It creates a soundscape that never existed before Mozart wrote this work.”

“[It is] the sound of a string quartet joined by a fifth member, which sometimes, as a chameleon, becomes like a fifth string player. Much in the same way that Mozart wrote several quintets with an extra viola, the clarinet takes that role, but then with its capability of playing like a coloratura soprano, it sometimes jumps out of the texture. And even now, to someone like me who has played this piece for half a century, the genius of the interplay between the instruments is still startling sometimes.”

David Schifrin will join the Emory Chamber Music Society in concert Jan. 20-21. Tickets and more information are available at chambermusicsociety.emory.edu/index.html.

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