I love piano and the last few concerts have been solo piano and there was a piano for this concert, but the feature instrument was clarinet. Not an instrument I hear too often, for jazz or classical, at least not outside an orchestral setting. This was interesting. Helena is a recent graduate from Elder Con in Adelaide and she was accompanied by Lucus, an ANUSOM graduate from a few years back. The clarinet was clear in this context, woody, earthy. I was close and could see the fingering and that was slick and very fast with lots of long scalar runs. I believe the fingering doesn't repeat on the octave, but I'd have to investigate. It's a difficult instrument not least for clear and reliable tone but Helena did well. And she didn't select her music to get an easy pass. The selections of Weber, Louis Cahuzac and Saint-Saens were all challenging. The Cahuzac was Arlequin and it was a solo clarinet piece. I was just blown over by the speed. I could see Helena take a breathe quite often. Lucus was different, of course, reading capably, straight backed, eyes lifting when a phrase will be led, the model of accompaniment, no breathing issues here other than to remain calm. So a fresh sound and a virtuosic outing. Great stuff.
Helena Mayer (clarinet) was accompanied by Lucus Allerton (piano) on Weber and Saint-Saens and played solo on Cahuzac at Wesley.
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