Three Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano

Three Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano is an early work by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. It was finished in 1956,^[1] but was premiered four years later.

Composition and premiere

The Three Miniatures were composed when Penderecki was only 23 and still a music student. They were dedicated to Władysław Kosieradzki, who was the clarinet professor at the Academy of Music in Kraków,^[2] and were premiered by the dedicatée at the clarinet and Zbigniew Jeżewski at the piano in the 1958 Polish Composers' Union concert, which took place in November 17.^[3] The score was published afterwards by the Polish Music Publishing House and Belwin-Mills.

Analysis

This composition consists of three short miniatures which take 1 to 1:30 minutes each to perform. The general mood and style of the work differs from the following works and shows no signs of Penderecki's later radicalism,^[4] in the sense that these miniatures are not focused on the sonority of the instruments to generate atmospheres, probably influenced by Béla Bartók.^[5] The miniatures were titled as follows:^[6]

1. Allegro
2. Andante cantabile
3. Allegro ma non troppo

The two outer movements of this composition are active and fast, while the middle one is slower and more meditative.

Reception

The Miniatures were negatively received by critics.^[3] Vincent McDermott, from The Musical Quarterly, described the whole set of miniatures as "dull".^[7] However, the miniatures were some of the few early compositions accepted for publication.^[4]

Notable recordings

Following are some of the most well-known recordings of this piece:

Clarinet	Piano	Record Company	Year of Recording	Format
Lev Mikhailov	Alexei Lubimov	Melodiya	1970	LP[3]
Kjell-Inge Stevensson	Eva Knardahl	BIS Records	1976	CD[3][8]
Brian Schweickhart	John Cobb	Coronet Records	1981	LP[3]
Claude Faucomprez	Alain Raës	Solstice Records	1983	LP[3]
Walter Boeykens	Robert Groslot	Terpsichore Records	1983	LP[3]
Melvin Warner	Sylvia Reynolds	Crystal Records	1985	LP and CD[3][9]
Joaquín Valdepeñas	Patricia Parr	CBC Records	1987	CD[3]
Sabine Meyer	Alfons Kontarsky	EMI	1989	LP[3][10]
Aleksander Romański	Szábolcs Esztényi	WERGO	1993	CD[3][11]
Michel Lethiec	Juhani Lagerspetz	Naxos	2001	CD[3][12]