Bouffil Clarinet Chamber Music

Recorded August 2021 in Cesano Maderno and Santo Stefano Ticino (Milan), Italy. Booklet in English contains liner notes by one of the clarinettists, Luigi Magistrelli, and musicologist Peter Quantrill, along with biographies of the artists.

Composer: Jacques-Jules Bouffil
Artists: Luigi Magistrelli, Laura Magistrelli, Cristina Romano clarinets
Claudia Bracco piano

Little is known of Jacques-Jules Bouffil (or Boufil, 1783–1868) before his admission to the newly founded Paris Conservatoire in 1801. There he became a clarinet student of Xavier LefeÌvre, apparently making such rapid progress that he was awarded a premier prix on his graduation in 1806 and appointed second clarinet in the Opeìra-Comique a year later. In the years following he began to share principal clarinet duties with Charles Duvernoy until eventually (in 1821) succeeding him outright in the post.

Enter the Czech-born composer Antonin Reicha, who had arrived in the French capital from Vienna in 1808 fleeing the conflict that had engulfed Europe. A later account of 1837 tells us that while the Theìâtre Feydeau was performing Reicha’s opera Cagliostro, the composer was approached one day by Bouffil and a colleague, Gueìneìe, both members of the orchestra, asking for composition lessons. Reicha ofcourse agreed.

The same account goes on to relay that, as the winds had been neglected as solo instruments in favour of strings by composers of the day (Mozart excepted), Reicha had the idea to combine the five principal winds, and after some research he published six wind quintets in succession, performed by Bouffil and the above-mentioned members of his composition studio over three consecutive winters, in the foyer of the Salle Favart.

Coached in composition by Reicha, Bouffil wrote primarily for his own instrument and in a Viennese style attractively modulated with a French accent, having both virtuosic and didactic purposes in mind. Both of these sides of his output receive attention on the present album.

Tracklist: 

00:00:00 Duo for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 4: I. Allegro moderato – Adagio

 00:07:06 Duo for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 4: II. Allegro agitato  

00:14:19 La Dame Blanche: I. Overture 

 00:23:20 Trio No. 1, Op. 8: I. Andante – Allegro  

00:29:20 Trio No. 1, Op. 8: II. Allegretto 

 00:31:25 Trio No. 1, Op. 8: III. Minuetto e trio 

 00:34:19 Trio No. 1, Op. 8: IV. Allegro  

00:38:37 Trio No. 1, Op. 7: I. Allegro maestoso  

00:44:02 Trio No. 1, Op. 7: II. Minuetto e trio  

00:46:49 Trio No. 1, Op. 7: III. Andante  

00:49:31 Trio No. 1, Op. 7: IV. Allegro moderato  

00:52:18 Trio No. 2, Op. 7: I. Allegro non troppo  

00:57:16 Trio No. 2, Op. 7: II. Adagio cantabile 01:01:11 Trio No. 2, Op. 7: III. Minuetto e trio

 01:04:22 Trio No. 2, Op. 7: IV. Allegro non troppo