If the music of Pierre Max Dubois resists description, the difficulty may stem from his opaque intentions, his emphasis on style over substance, and his apparent rejection of personal expression. His music may be loosely classified as modernist, but it is seldom more experimental or adventurous than that of his teacher and chief influence,
Darius Milhaud. Dubois' works for clarinet and piano are marked by flirtations with polytonality, ambiguous modal harmonies, and, in later pieces, the use of twelve-tone rows; but these are treated superficially and without consistency, as if Dubois adopted them only as devices to spice up his otherwise tame and traditional work. Such bland pieces as the Rapsodie, the Romance, and the Sonatina leave little impression, except that they are merely competent recital pieces. The banal Épitaphe and the meandering Sonata Breve for solo clarinet are uninteresting exercises, and the neo-Classical Quator is just an imitative diversion without a point. Only in the Sonata di Mady and Coïncidence are there signs of growth and exploration, but these are held back by Dubois' reliance on conventional patterns and clichés. Clarinetist
Csaba Klenyán and pianist Ildikó Cs. Nagy give these works solid performances, and the uncredited clarinetists on Quator -- if not a multi-tracked
Klenyán? -- are able and engaging.