Intermezzo: Works of Michele Mangani (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Mangani: Executive; Pagina d’Album; Intermezzo; Astor Piazzolla: Tango Étude No. 3 (Arr. Mangani); Mangani: Love Theme; Dancing Doll; Ave Maria; Tre Danze Latine for Clarinet and Piano – I. Contradanza II. Vals Criolio III. Chorinho; Dreaming; Theme for Clarinet; Andante Malinconico; Souvenir. Seunghee Lee, clarinet; Manhattan Chamber Players; Steven Beck, piano. Musica Solis MS202408

 

As Ry Cooder once sang on his treasurable album Paradise and Lunch (well, not really, but it was awfully close), “oh, I’m a fool for a clarinet.” And yes, folks, I really am. I played the clarinet myself, long ago and not particularly well. However, when played by a skilled clarinetist such as Seunghee Lee, I can hardly imagine a sweeter instrumental sound. Lee, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, but who moved at the age of nine to the Chicago area with her family, presents here an engaging program featuring the music of the Italian composer Michele Mangani (b. 1966), someone whose music that has long held an attraction for the clarinetist, perhaps because Mangani is not only a composer, and a conductor, but also a clarinetist himself. He currently resides in Urbino, Italy.

 

Ms. Lee also has other talents beyond the clarinet. 
She collaborated with the noted author Deepak Chopra on his album and book: HOME: Where Everyone is Welcome, a collection of poems and songs inspired by a diverse group of immigrants. She is also a talented golfer, known as “Sunny Kang,” in the golf world. She has been featured in HK Golfer Magazine and has spoken at TEDx Hong Kong about the surprising similarities between golf and music and the mental challenges of viewing both skills through the lens of a perfectionist. 

 

A good introduction to the music to be found on this release can be found in this video introduction to the album by Ms. Lee herself. In it, she remarks that one of the features of Mangani’s music that draws her to it is that it allows her to feel as though she is able to sing through her clarinet. Indeed, Mangani’s music has an expressive, melodic, sweet quality to it that is entertaining but not cloying. The program is divided roughly into halves; from the opening Executive (a performance of which you can view here) through Ave Maria, Ms. Lee is accompanied by the strings of the Manhattan Chamber Players, while the remainder of the program finds Ms. Lee accompanied by the piano of Steven Beck. Included in the first half of the program is the one composition – Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Étude No. 3 – that is not by Mangani himself, but in his arrangement, it fits right in. A particular highlight of the latter collaboration is Andante Maliconico, with its simple but sincere melody played with a full, rich, steady tone by Ms. Lee. All in all, Intermezzo is one of the most pleasant releases to cross my path in quite some time. Highly recommended to those who love melody.