In Aleph's Shifrin plays Schifrin, esteemed clarinetist and former artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center David Shifrin plays concerted works of eclectic Argentine-American composer Lalo Schifrin. They are, as explained in the liner notes, distantly related despite their differently spelled surnames, and they have known each other since the late 1950s, when Schifrin encouraged Shifrin's father to buy him his first clarinet. That certainly worked out for the best, as Shifrin has become one of the world's most imposing figures among clarinet virtuosi, equipped with a fat, yet sweet and silvery tone reminiscent of that giant of the instrument, Benny Goodman. The sound of jazz is never very far away in either the Dances Concertantes for clarinet and orchestra (1989) or the Central Park Variations (1984); the Capriccio for clarinet and strings (1981) is a bit more astringent in style, but the second movement is driven by rhythms derived from Israeli folk music, and the piece is quite exciting. The Dances Concertantes is the most wide-ranging stylistically; here orchestral motifs reminiscent of Schifrin's one-time teacher Olivier Messiaen collide with tango rhythms; one wishes that its five movements were a little long and didn't end quite so abruptly, but at least the piece never wears out its welcome. The Central Park Variations, performed here with pianist André-Michel Schub, constitute a pleasant walk through Central Park, situated in a jazzy bed of harmonic gestures but taking note of fleeting features within the landscape that add color to the experience.
David Shifrin sounds great; he is a prince among clarinet players, and those who are devoted to the instrument will greatly enjoy his playing here. Some listeners, who know Lalo Schifrin only through his work with the Three Tenors and his Mission Impossible theme, might have some suspicion that Schifrin is somehow less than genuine as a composer of serious music. The high quality of the music on Shifrin plays Schifrin should put any such misgivings to bed once and for all.