Duration: ca. 10 minutes
Difficulty: Moderate/Grade 5
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Program notes
Fantasy & Pas de Deux was commissioned by the Drucker Duo, Naomi Drucker, principal clarinet of the Nassau Symphony and Stanley Drucker, former principal clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic.
Fantasy offers both clarinetists to present virtuosic material developed from the opening motive. The music sounds spontaneous and in constant development, which lends to the notion of "fantasy." With regard to the second movement, the term "Pas de Deux" was selected to represent a duet filled with emotion and lyricism. Written for a husband/wife combination, there exists the notion of a gender identification in this piece, with the first clarinet (played on a clarinet in A for a slightly deeper sound) exploiting the lower register of the instrument, while the second clarinet performs flirtatious ornamental gestures around the melody. There are, in fact, two distinct themes in this movement that merge, in a gesture of unity at the movement's conclusion.