Three Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano is an early work by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. It was finished in 1956,[1] but was premiered four years later.
The Three Miniatures were composed when Penderecki was only 23 and still a music student. They were dedicated to Władysław Kosieradzki, who was the clarinet professor at the Academy of Music in Kraków,[2] and were premiered by the dedicatée at the clarinet and Zbigniew Jeżewski at the piano in the 1958 Polish Composers' Union concert, which took place in November 17.[3] The score was published afterwards by the Polish Music Publishing House and Belwin-Mills.
This composition consists of three short miniatures which take 1 to 1:30 minutes each to perform. The general mood and style of the work differs from the following works and shows no signs of Penderecki's later radicalism,[4] in the sense that these miniatures are not focused on the sonority of the instruments to generate atmospheres, probably influenced by Béla Bartók.[5] The miniatures were titled as follows:[6]
The two outer movements of this composition are active and fast, while the middle one is slower and more meditative.
The Miniatures were negatively received by critics.[3] Vincent McDermott, from The Musical Quarterly, described the whole set of miniatures as "dull".[7] However, the miniatures were some of the few early compositions accepted for publication.[4]
Following are some of the most well-known recordings of this piece:
Clarinet | Piano | Record Company | Year of Recording | Format |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lev Mikhailov | Alexei Lubimov | Melodiya | 1970 | LP[3] |
Kjell-Inge Stevensson | Eva Knardahl | BIS Records | 1976 | CD[3][8] |
Brian Schweickhart | John Cobb | Coronet Records | 1981 | LP[3] |
Claude Faucomprez | Alain Raës | Solstice Records | 1983 | LP[3] |
Walter Boeykens | Robert Groslot | Terpsichore Records | 1983 | LP[3] |
Melvin Warner | Sylvia Reynolds | Crystal Records | 1985 | LP and CD[3][9] |
Joaquín Valdepeñas | Patricia Parr | CBC Records | 1987 | CD[3] |
Sabine Meyer | Alfons Kontarsky | EMI | 1989 | LP[3][10] |
Aleksander Romański | Szábolcs Esztényi | WERGO | 1993 | CD[3][11] |
Michel Lethiec | Juhani Lagerspetz | Naxos | 2001 | CD[3][12] |