The Phenomenon of Threes
A dark and stormy night. NYU clarinet professor Esther Lamneck found herself stranded in a blizzard at Rochester airport. She mentioned to fellow would-be passenger-composer Richard Brooks-the tough time she was having finding new pieces to play with her trio. Flights resumed and shortly afterward Brooks wrote “Maelstrom” as a surprise for Lamneck and the ensemble. Thus was born this project: new rep for a familiar but somehow neglected chamber combo of flute, clarinet and piano. From jigs to gigabytes, there is a lot of new territory covered in this collection. A crack team of five composers (Lawrence Moss, Dinu Ghezzo, Richard Brooks, Harold Oliver and Ron Mazurek) have spiffed up the genre and pushed the techniques of solo and ensemble writing in satisfying new directions. Students of the instruments now have meaty pieces to learn and need not rely on more Baroque transcriptions to satisfy their programming appetites. Keith Underwood and Esther Lamneck have taught flutists and clarinetists for many years and along with pianist Martha Locker they offer workshops in flute and piano repertoire and clarinet and piano repertoire at New York University’s Steinhardt School, Music and Performing Arts. With this collection they can now add phenomenal repertoire for all three of them.
