Summerwinds Festival: Duo Gurfinkel: Pictures

Alexander & Daniel Gurfinkel - clarinet

From the offbeat to the spectacular, expressive and effortlessly cool: that's Duo Gurfinkel. Two virtuosos sharing one breath, the same feeling and rhythm in their blood - classically trained yet equally at home in klezmer - they perform original works for two solo clarinets and take on celebrated hits from the classical repertoire. Discovered by Zubin Mehta at the age of 12, the duo has since worked with him and other conductors on international stages.

"Pictures" - the twin duo opens their portrait of life with Mozart's elegant Rondo and Rossini's exuberant Figaro aria: "I have chosen the finest of arts! / I am the factotum of this beautiful world!" Bach/Gounod's "Ave Maria" floats in with meditative tenderness. A furious contrast comes from the caprices of the legendary devil-violinist Paganini and Giampieri's self-mocking, high-spirited Maskenspiel on the Italian folk tune "Carnevale di Venezia" - known in German as "Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken".

The clarinet duo is not a standard ensemble, and music written specifically for it is relatively rare. With his Sonata for Two Clarinets, the 19-year-old Poulenc took a bold step: in the first movement he has both clarinetists play simultaneously in different time signatures. In the Andante he instructs them to play in a very singing manner and to "dream the sounds". The finale bursts with sheer joy in speed, rhythm and tone.

Also written originally for 2 solo clarinets are "Pictures of a Forgotten Town" by Ukrainian-Israeli composer Yuri Povolotsky. Like all his works, the "Images of a Forgotten City" draw on both classical music and klezmer - the Yiddish musical tradition of Eastern Europe, nearly wiped out by the Holocaust. The delicate miniatures conjure inner images and bring a forgotten place back to life - a shtetl, a small town? The programme closes with Povolotsky's deeply moving "Jewish Soul Fantasy".