Press
Zwilich Clarinet Concerto added to National Recording Registry
On April 12, 2023, David Shifrin’s recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra with Chamber Music Northwest was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." From the Library of Congress:
Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich had already written the first movement of this work when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 took place. Clarinetist David Shifrin leads the Chamber Music Northwest Chamber Orchestra on this live recording made in Portland, Oregon, in 2004. He and several members of the ensemble had performed its premiere a year earlier, and their feeling for it comes through in the buoyancy of the first movement, suggesting the hustle and bustle of a normal working day in New York City, and in the violence, anger and sorrow of the rest of the day expressed in the subsequent movements. The 2012 CD release of this performance, and its enduring impact and reputation, are singular for a 21st century classical recording.
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Bernstein Centennial Festival Review
"Shifrin here displayed his characteristically crystalline tone and razor-sharp technique...neatly meeting both the spirit and the huge technical demands of the work.”
Wayne Lee Gay, Theater Jones
Theater Jones Auxiliary Input: Nielsen Album Review
“This recording is … perfect in every respect. It’s mostly, if not completely, a live recording (and I’m learning to love these). You hear performers breathing, you hear key clicks and valve action—in short, you get all the performance artifacts that make good recordings so enjoyable, and live recordings so lively. The best thing about it is David Shifrin. He’s the best part of the ‘perfect in every respect.’ He musters the full spectrum of colors possible for a clarinet, from sine-wave purity to hairy, rough-edged humanity.”
Andrew Anderson, Auxiliary Input
Gramophone: Nielsen Album Review
"...Nielsen's challenging clarinet-writing poses no problems whatsoever for David Shifrin's seasoned mastery. His prodigious breath control and effortless legato make light of the composer's more fanciful flights, yet he's not afraid to rough up his tone in climactic fortissimos or in his combative exchanges with Jon Greeney's expert snare drum virtuosity. In this sense, Shifrin's interpretation reconciles the suave demeanor of Sabine Meyer, Martin Fröst and Anthony McGill with the more daring and volatile Stanley Drucker and Olie Schill…"
Jed Distler, Gramophone
The Clarinet: Perpetual Motion Album Review
"With a multitude of recordings in existence, Shifrin and pianist Robert Blocker manage to present a performance both refreshing and novel while respecting tradition….Shifrin’s technique is very clean and polished; individual notes within any of the technical passages come across with the utmost clarity and balance. Shifrin’s warm, mellow tone is especially conducive to the haunting quality of the second movement and
his flexibility and control lend to a truly captivating performance throughout.”
Karl Kolbeck, The Clarinet
New York Times Reviews (1983-2012)
Reviews and features of David Shifrin published in The New York Times between 1983 and 2012.
