David Griffiths (clarinet)
Timothy Young (piano)
Ken Murray (guitar)
CD released by ABC Classics
If you were reviewing a CD of Beethoven Piano Sonatas or a CD of Brahms chamber music all the attention would be on the performers and not the composer but when a CD is by a contemporary composer the performers are often relegated to the end of the review – a mere afterthought. But this CD of the music of Melbourne composer Stuart Greenbaum deserves to put the performers on an equal pedestal as their performances give Greenbaum’s music special meaning.
Clarinetist David Griffiths, best known in Sydney as a member of the famed Australia Ensemble, performs on every track and his exquisite tone and astonishing attention to detail and every nuance the composer implies is a delight to hear. In a way this is a CD of Griffiths as well as Greenbaum. His playing of the unaccompanied Life Cycles with its meandering approach to following a compositional thought process is a delight.
Timothy Young brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the music and he weights the music ‘just right’. Lovely touch.
I have written before for classikON of the guitarist Ken Murray and his superb technique and musicianship. In the works Cloud Eight and Going Home Griffiths and Murray capture the music of a bygone time perfectly. I listened to the whole CD before reading any of the excellent accompanying program notes and, at times, I thought some of the works were at odds with each other but when I read that some, like the two with guitar, were written when the composer was still under 30 it was intriguing to see the CD more as a document of the development of the music of Greenbaum.
The titular work A Trillion Miles of Darkness – a sonata for clarinet and piano – has evocative movement names, desolate, celestial and alone, unto the end of the world and is the most substantial work at just over 22 minutes. With catchy little motivs that permeate the three movements the crossover jazz/minimalist sound world of this sonata is perfectly captured by Griffiths and Young.
As the most recent work, written in 2016, it shows where the music of Greenbaum is now and probably where it is headed for the next decade or so. He has carved out his own soundworld that will please many concertgoers and CD collectors.
