FLORENCIO ASENJO (b.1926): A Thousand and One Nights: Impressions for Clarinet and Orchestra, Sinfonia Concertante, 3 Images from Don Quijote.

Description: In accordance with his stated compositional principle of preferring the aptly expressed mood or emotional content of a musical statement to constructional artifice, Asenjo here presents a highly effective set of mood-pictures; the one depicting episodes from the 1001 Nights, the other, scenes from Don Quixote. The scenes are prefaced or commented upon by a solo clarinet which represents the voice of Scheherazade and which matches in melodic shape and temperament the orchestra's telling of each successive tale. The Quixote pieces are also subjective impressions of the stories, affectionately and warmly recounted, like the other works here, in a rich neo-romantic and thoroughly tonal idiom. The Sinfonia Concertante is a robust and appealing mini-concerto for orchestra in three movements, bringing various instruments and sections to the fore in a spirit of collaborative discourse. Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic; Kirk Trevor.