Madison Avenue
Wesley Ferreira
Potenza Music PM1035 (wesleyferreira.com)
Canadian clarinetist Wesley Ferreira, now based in the U.S., has a solo release of mostly American music. The textures range from intimate and unaccompanied to wind-ensemble backing at hurricane-force. He includes nothing substantial in terms of duration, but consistently demonstrates a fine fluid technique and flexible tone. The longest work, clocking in at 13 minutes, is a tribute to the automobile called Auto ’66. This selection wheels along in spite of poor engineering (sound, not mechanical): Ferreira and the band seem to have been separated by a firewall. High rev. brassy moments are reduced to a sub-compact size, and the clarinet colour is dulled, losing the waxy lustre it displays on other tracks. Composer James M. David has a thing for cars and for Holst’s The Planets. Mercury is a source for the second movement (Mini Cooper S), which is appropriate, but what Mars has to do with a Lamborghini escapes me.
Elsewhere Ferreira knocks off blistering passagework and a great array of multiphonic effects, most notably in Mikro-Sonata by Aleksandar Obradović. The title track, by Nick DiBerardino, opens the CD with a brief and cheeky tribute to New York. Pianist Gail Novak types furiously in the background (the composer’s own suggestion, from the very useful liner notes), while the clarinet scales the skyscrapers and swings on looping Spidey-webs between them. Canadian Alasdair MacLean’s Without Further Ado II for two clarinets which immediately follows sounds like it could be a second movement to the previous track. In this as elsewhere, Ferreira is joined by his spouse Copper Ferreira. She holds her end of the bargain up well in the MacLean, but not so well as the bass clarinetist in Rotazione tre by Roberto Cognazzo, which derives much of its material from music of Nino Rota, a less instantly recognizable source than Holst.
My pick for best cut is the Sonata for B-flat Clarinet and Piano by Nikola Resanovic. At just over ten minutes, it wastes no time doing anything but providing a showcase for Ferreira and fun for the listener, especially in the Balkan-influenced finale.
