Dorff, Daniel: Summer Solstice

Concerto for Clarinet and Strings

Summer Solstice is a 19-minute concerto in three movements, composed for solo clarinet with a colorfully-textured string orchestra. The piano reduction is comfortably voiced for recital use. Dorff's joy in writing for his own instrument is readily heard in the warm cantabile writing and gracefully idiomatic passagework. Drawing inspiration from the elegance of Mozart's concerto and the rhythmic grit of Copland's, Dorff's concerto is a true hybrid of jazz-inspired language with classical form and counterpoint. The Philadelphia Inquirer has written, "Summer Solstice is light without being insubstantial, melodic without being obvious. It has an invariably American sound." Orchestral score and parts are available on rental.