Soliloquy for clarinet, Op. 21

Don Ross, clarinet
Though the liner notes make a point of labeling the nationality of the composers included in this collection (mostly Belgians and Canadians), the distinctions seem irrelevant when the focus is so firmly on worshipping at the alter of the clarinet in styles that these same notes outline as “lyrical introversion or pessimistic lyricism.” NEC grad Kenneth Girard is the lone American, but he holds his own quite ably representing the stars and stripes. His Soliloquy is an appropriately stream-of-consciousness sort of composition with pacing and content more akin to a long letter from a friend away overseas than a gossipy, barstool confession.

—MS