Seunghee Lee & JP Jofre: Aspire
Musica Solis

Clarinetist Seunghee Lee (aka Sunny Kang) and bandoneonist JP Jofre (Juan Pablo Jofre Romarion) share equal billing on Aspire, but a scan of the set-list suggests he's the dominant presence. Of the eight compositions featured, six are his, including the three-movement Double Concerto for Clarinet, Bandoneon and Orchestra, and his bandoneon is one of the release's defining elements. That said, Lee's playing figures prominently too, and there are moments where she appears without him. Jofre's arrangement of Astor Piazzolla's Tango Étude No. 3 combines clarinet and orchestra, and Heitor Villa-Lobos's “Aria (Cantilena)” from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, the arrangement this time by Lee, also places her at the forefront. Interestingly, she's the owner of the Musica Solis label, but the nearly hour-long Aspire is hardly a vanity project.

Musicality is at a high level throughout, with the exceptionally talented Lee and Jofre joined by pianist Steven Beck and no less than the London Symphony Orchestra (Enrico Fagone conducting) on the project. On performance grounds, there's much to admire, and variety in presentation adds to the appeal. Ambitious arrangements for solo instruments and orchestra are complemented by others scored for clarinet and bandoneon only and trios where Beck joins the soloists. As one would expect from a recording that includes Piazzolla and bandoneon, much of the focus is on Argentinean tango music, with Jofre, a native of San Juan, Argentina, following in the late bandoneon master's footsteps by merging tango and classical music. Jofre's material has a languorous ease about it that's also characteristic of Piazzolla's writing.

A buoyant ode to spring, Primavera introduces the album with a zestful display of Lee's virtuosity and is also marked by Jofre's sensitive partnering. They and the orchestra seamlessly align on this vibrant scene-setter, even if a little bit of muddiness is present in the production. Piazzolla's Tango Étude No. 3 follows, Lee impressing again for the command of her execution, her playing nicely complemented by the silkiness of the orchestral backdrop. The writing style of the ‘Nuevo tango' legend is clearly audible in the jazzy syncopations of the piece, despite it being a mere three-and-a-half minutes long. Yes, Villa-Lobos's “Aria (Cantilena)” has been covered extensively (like Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah,” to excess, some might argue), but here its supplicating lyricism is enlivened by an arrangement that pairs clarinet with David Cohen's cello, their lines in some passages doubling and in others coiling around one another in counterpoint.

Commissioned by and written expressly for Lee, Jofre's Double Concerto for Clarinet, Bandoneon and Orchestra is the centrepiece of the album, its “Vals irreal,” “La Noche,” and “Aboriginal” movements totaling twenty-one minutes. The adventurous first movement's naturally lively but also sinuous in the serpentine manner by which the three components entwine. The ear perks up when Lee works a Rhapsody in Blue-like flourish into an early spotlight, though a subsequent section proves as arresting when percussion punctuates the soloists' brooding expressions. The central movement's predictably slow but affecting nonetheless for the mournful to-and-fro between the soloists and the dreamlike atmosphere that emerges during Lee's solo. True to form, the concerto ends on a spirited high, with “Aboriginal” buoyed by jazzy dance rhythms, expansive orchestral writing, and inspired doublings and exchanges between Lee and Jofre.

Jofre's Como el Agua makes for a pleasingly tender duet when heard after the large-scale concerto, the fragile setting rendered even more appealing when shimmering bandoneon chords amplify the poignancy of the clarinet's utterances. Complementing the forlorn Como el Agua is Sweet Dreams, a sweetly touching lullaby. With its piano part arranged by Miho Hazama, Jofre's Tangodromo brings Beck aboard for a tango-neoclassical exercise rich in mood shifts and jagged syncopations. Taranguino closes things out with a second trio performance, this one as rhythmically alive and mercurial as the other and, in its closing passages, particularly Piazzolla-esque. The muddiness audible in some of the orchestra-related performances is absent in these cases, with all three voices separating themselves from the others with clarity.

September 2022