Sharon Kam Collected Recordings

Start with the sound: Berlin Classics here offers chamber music recorded in a chamber like the ones for which it was intended. Israeli clarinetist Sharon Kam, along with German pianist Martin Helmchen (there's something that wouldn't have been so common until recently) and cellist Gustav Rivinius, performs Brahms' three late chamber masterpieces for clarinet in the Siemens-Villa in Berlin, not the studio it sounds like but a genuine villa in Berlin's swank Lichterfelde neighborhood.

Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622, and Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581, are masterpieces of the period at the end of his life, and they've been recorded hundreds if not thousands of times. To come up with a standout recording at this point, and indeed without doing anything radical, is quite an accomplishment, but that's what Israeli-German violinist Sharon Kam does here. These performances can be classified with those that use modern instruments but show a distinct influence from historical performance practices; the Austrian-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic is a small group designed for the dimensions of Haydn's work spaces at Esterházy castle, and Kam uses a basset clarinet (a modern one), with the somewhat extended range of the instrument for which Mozart wrote the two works.

Even if some people still consider him “too modern” today, Hanau-born Hesse Paul Hindemith is undoubtedly one of the most influential German composers of the generation after Richard Strauss. Few of his immediate colleagues have found their way into the international repertoire to the same extent that he has, or influenced subsequent generations through comparably extensive educational work. All three works for clarinet featured on this recording date from years of extensive travel: the Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano was written in 1938 around the time of his emigration to Switzerland, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in 1939 during the course of the tours of the USA that immediately followed the emigration, and finally, the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in 1947 (written for and premiered by Benny Goodman) when Hindemith left his American exile to visit Europe again for the first time after the Second World War.

On her clarinet, Sharon Kam expresses something for which there are no words. At one with her instrument, she thrills in this compilation with a virtuosic suppleness and sensitive cantabile in a class of its own. A firework display of vivacity and emotion. This reissue includes works by Weber, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Massenet.

Sharon Kam loves opera. More, maybe, than one would expect of a world‐class clarinettist. Unless you know that she has been married for many years to an opera conductor and so feels quite at home with music drama. Then you will understand that her new CD album Opera! fulfils a long‐held dream and at the same time adds several interesting pieces to the instrument's relatively limited concert repertoire. In any case, this recording goes far beyond what one normally expects of arrangements.

Here are a young Israeli clarinetist, an English orchestra, and what sounds like a German conductor (the booklet gives no information about the performers) playing American jazz as if to the manner born. Sharon Kam has proved in concert performances of classical music that she is a virtuoso with a strong musical personality. Here, she proves that, in addition to having complete mastery of her instrument and all its resources, she also has an uncanny ability to identify with the styles and idioms of her adopted country.

Das Streichquartett hat eine perfekt austarierte, homogene Besetzung und gilt nicht von ungefähr als die "Königsgattung" der Kammermusik. Was passiert, wenn sich nun eine Klarinette hinzugesellt? Damit trifft ein Blasinstrument mit ganz verschiedenen Registern hinzu. Mit ihnen kann es hervortreten und sich begleiten lassen, sich dann aber ganz plötzlich ins Stimmgewebe abtauchen und für überraschende klangliche Abwechslung sorgen.

Sharon Kam setzt mit ihrer gefühlvollen Interpretation jeden Stück ihren eigenen Stempel auf, vor allem vor dem Hintergrund, dass alle Stücke auf der CD ursprünglich für eine andere Besetzung komponiert wurden. Begleitet wird sie am Klavier von Itamar Golan, der es vermag, mit seinem Klavier die Schönheit des Klarinettenklanges noch zu unterstreichen.