Charles Neidich in the clarinet and Joshua Grunmann in the piano became an interesting combination of classical music I’ve ever head before. The interesting introduction Charles Neidich gave in the beginning got my attention. He started by saying that, when the war was taking place in Russia, musicians were not allow to express themselves so most of these artist where not allow to even have their own diaries. Consequently, musicians will express their daily lives through the sound of their instruments. In other words, the music sheet became the musicians’ diaries.

For the first part, a piece by Mieczyslaw Weinberg called Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, op. 28.  opened the first part of four parts of the concert. Being this the first to witness a concert in the front row, it was impressive to see how both instruments sounded live. It is quite different and a unique experience to hear live organic sounds than watching videos on Youtube. It was impressive to see how the coordination of both musicians brought the pieces together. Also, one is able to see how passionately they play their instruments, which is why the majority of the people in the concert applauded and stand up to show their respects to both musicians. Even though Mr. Neidich was having problems adjusting the mouthpiece of his clarinet he was able to have it fix in no time and kept playing like nothing was wrong. And, personally I believe the flow of the music was not affected at all.

One can think that classical music could have you bored in no time but, being in this small concert has shown that it does not matter where music comes from and what genre it belongs to as long as you give it try in listening it, respect it and later come to understand it. In other words, music is not something you create out of nothing but every musical piece has its own meaning behind it. For instance, towards the second part of the concert, Threnos (a solo for clarinet) played entirely by Charles Neidich is a dedication for the people affected by some tragic event such as the Tsunami victims & etc.  Music is and always has been the vehicle of self-expression. Charles Neidich and Joshua Grunmann had bring a good combination of instruments to the stage but mostly the way they controlled these instruments is an art that should be cultivated more often and encouraged with concerts like this one.