The Silver Keys

Usher Hall 28/9/26

Emerging Artists Concert in conjunction with Live Music Now Scotland and the Usher Hall

The Silver Keys is a dynamic multi-cultural (Scottish-American, Polish, Lithuanian, and English) clarinet quartet based in Central Scotland, the four original members having met in 2018 when they were all students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of John Cushing. The current members are Laura Hundert (Bb clarinet), Paweł Jaworski (Bb and Eb clarinet), Matas Ščerbauskas (Bb clarinet), and Jennifer Moss (Bass clarinet).

The music commenced with 'Cantina Band' from 'Star Wars' (John Williams, arr. G Muolo), played by our cheerful quartet as they walked onto the stage and took their seats, with this informality very much setting the tone for this very enjoyable concert.

Paweł then introduced his own arrangement of 'Dance Preludes' (Witold Lutoslawki), composed for clarinet and piano and based on folk tunes from northern Poland. This comprised a number of short pieces of varying mood and dynamic, providing the listener with a rich tapestry of sound, yet with the individual threads provided by each player shining through

Adolf Schreiner’s 'Immer Kleiner' (Smaller and Smaller), also arranged by Paweł, was particularly entertaining. After starting the piece our soloist, Laura, proceeded to remove several pieces of her instrument until she was left playing only the mouthpiece.

Inspired by ‘lost or hidden voices’, Andrew Jacob’s five part 'Songs of the Malayali', a Kimie Composition Prize winning commission by LMNS last year, was for me the highlight of the morning. Each part bore an individual title that unavoidably shaped one’s listening. 'A little ship was on the sea' contained a suggestion of rolling billows and something of the sea shanty in what I discerned to be a kind of verse and refrain structure. Then 'What do I get in return?' presented a sound that was enigmatic and somewhat open-ended. A further change of mood was contained in 'Your sadness will turn into happiness', with much foot stomping and clapping from both players and audience. 'O this mystery' was indeed that, giving the impression that the music did not quite know where it was going next, before drifting away, rather enigmatically, at its conclusion. 'The end will surely be sweet' was very much a finale with its brighter and assured multi-layered sound.

The programme formally concluded with 'Sholem-alekhem, rov Feidman!' which had been composed by Bela Kovacs as a tribute to the legendary klezmer clarinetist Giora Feidman. We were promised “interesting clarinet noises” by Paweł who had arranged the piece. Unlike much other klezmer music I’ve heard, its pace and dynamics varied – beginning slow and ponderous, becoming somewhat lyrical, then much livelier, before we heard the more instantly recognisable eastern European klezmer sound and rhythm. The morning finally ended with an unnamed piece played by all four on Eb clarinets. Despite the brevity of the piece and relative uniformity of instruments played, the sound was again rich and rewarding.

This morning’s concert was a lovely start to the week for the audience. Such fun and such virtuosity, too!

There are more Emerging Artists Concerts in December and January. See the Usher Hall website for details.