Forest Song: The Classical Clarinet

The Santa Cruz Baroque Festival presents:

FOREST SONG: The Classical Clarinet (Concert IV)

Featuring Eric Hoeprich (classical clarinet) with Linda Burman-Hall (fortepiano)

In the baroque period the clarinet was indeed a 'rare bird' just hatched around 1700. The classical clarinet of Mozart's time had only 5 keys but yielded great timbral variety. Enjoy the silken voice of this endangered instrument in works by Lefèvre, Stadler, Hoffmeister, Weber and Beethoven, brought to you by one of the world's leading historical clarinetists.

Eric Hoeprich has performed and recorded with renowned artists Frans Brüggen, Philippe Herreweghe, Sir Roger Norrington, and Christopher Hogwood, and Musica Antiqua Köln, just to name a few. He has also authored a book on the history of the clarinet through the musical instrument series of Yale University Press.

In addition to music, we explore parallels in the conservation of species and instruments with images of endangered wildlands, including rare birds and animals selected by biologist Richard Tenaza. This visual presentation is accompanied by a sound collage by Linda Burman-Hall. “Bilou Sapiens” (Wise Bilou) layers the voices of live wooden flutes over Tenaza's fieldwork recordings of animal sounds from the Mentawai Rainforest (electro-acoustic composition with Lars Johannesson & Alissa Roedig, baroque flutes).

More information about Hoeprich, the classical clarinet, Richard Tenaza, and “Bilou Sapiens” follows below.

Concert IV takes place on Saturday, April 16, at the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall beginning at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased through the UCSC Ticket Office (http://www.santacruztickets.com, 831-459-2159), the Civic Center Box Office, and the SC Baroque Festival (http://www.scbaroque.org, 831-457-9693). Admission: $23 general, $17 senior, $6 college student, $3 K-12.

Eric Hoeprich & the Classical Clarinet

For the past twenty-five years Eric Hoeprich has specialized in performing on the historical clarinet. His expertise as a musician, scholar and instrument maker allows for a unique approach to the solo clarinet repertoire of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Hoeprich is founding member and principal clarinet of Frans Brüggen's Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, and in addition to performing with his own ensembles world-wide, he has played and recorded with many luminaries of early music, including the Academy of Ancient Music (Hogwood), Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (Herreweghe), London Classical Players (Norrington), Musica Antiqua Köln (Goebel), Philharmonia (McGegan), Canada's Tafelmusik, Anima Eterna (van Immerseel) and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

His interest in playing and making early clarinets has led Hoeprich to amass a large collection of 18th and 19th century clarinets, including original instruments played by clarinetists that Weber and Brahms composed for, as well as possibly the oldest surviving French clarinet, made in the 1770s by Prudent in Paris.

Hoeprich and historical clarinets: “Eventually I became quite serious about the recorder and went to The Netherlands to study with Frans Brüggen, with whom I'd already had lessons at Harvard College when I was in my first year there. While I was in The Hague I started to make instruments, and also saw that there was an 18th-century version of the clarinet made of boxwood and started to play and make these as well.”

Historical versus modern clarinets: “The most important differences lie in the number of keys and the wood that was used to make clarinets in the 18th century. A typical Viennese School clarinet had 5 keys, which is sufficient for playing this music. There is a certain skill required to execute the cross-fingerings in order to produce all the notes in the music, but this has the added advantage of giving the instrument great variation in timbre throughout its scale.”

(Both interview excerpts are quoted from Gordillo, Bernard: “Questions for Early Clarinetist Eric Hoeprich” (posted April 7, 2010 at http://indianapublicmedia.org/harmonia/questions-for-eric-hoeprich-early-clarinettist/ )

Richard Tenaza & Bilou Sapiens

One could write a book on the numerous travels, adventures and accomplishments of Dr. Tenaza.

"When I was a child I didn't fantasize about being a fireman or policeman or president or movie actor. I didn't fantasize about material possession or wealth either. What I fantasized about were wild animals and wild people in wild places. . . . I've been very, very fortunate in having been able to live out many of those childhood fantasies."

Among his many endeavors, mostly related to his pursuit of the understanding and conservation of animals in their native habitats, Tenaza has recorded the fascinating vocalizations of endangered female Kloss gibbons, which musicologist Linda Burman-Hall (who happens to specialize in the music of Indonesia as well as early music) has worked into a sound collage together with a pair of live wooden flutes.

Says Dr. Tenaza: “Linda and I both think that the single most fascinating aspect of the Kloss's gibbon singing is the duets produced by neighboring females. The ladies meet at their territorial boundaries and sing in synchrony, performing aerial 'dances' together at the height of each song.”

The world premiere of this unique sound collage will be presented in accompaniment to Tenaza's rainforest images.

In addition to curating this special presentation, Burman-Hall will also be performing on fortepiano with Eric Hoeprich.

NEW in 2011 ~ Pre-Concert Presentations: Members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UCSC meet one hour before each SCBF concert (6:30 p.m.) for a talk and discussion of the evening's program. The location is at or near the concert venue -- ask at the ticket desk. All concert-goers are welcome to attend.

More information on all events at our website: http://www.scbaroque.org
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