Composer: Benjamin Britten, Gerald Finzi, Arnold Cooke, William Mathias
Performer: Michael Collins
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Release: 2016
Size: 755 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Benjamin Britten:
Movements for a Clarinet Concerto (Arr. C. Matthews)
01. I. Molto Allegro
02. II. Mazurka elegiaca
03. III. Finale
Gerald Finzi:
Five Bagatelles for clarinet & piano, Op. 23
04. No. 1. Prelude
05. No. 2. Romance
06. No. 3. Carol
07. No. 4. Forlana
08. No. 5. Fughetta
Arnold Cooke:
Clarinet Concerto No. 1
09. I. Allegro
10. II. Lento
11. III. Allegro vivace
William Mathias:
Clarinet Concerto, Op. 68
12. I. Allegro vivo
13. II. Lento espressivo
14. III. Allegro molto vivace
Recorded: 9-10 July 2015
Recording Venue: Maida Vale Studio No. 1, London
This second volume of British Clarinet Concertos follows ‘a stunning recording’ made a Critic’s Choice of the Year in Gramophone (2013). Here again, the exclusive Chandos artist Michael Collins combines the role of soloist with that of conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
The two three-movement concertos included in this album are fine examples of their respective composers’ work. While Arnold Cooke’s Concerto makes the most of the solo instrument’s wide- ranging lyricism, the Concerto with strings and percussion by William Mathias is a virtuoso piece for the instrument, which exploits its capacity for fluent runs and incisive attacks and its affinities with jazz.
The programme is completed by two arrangements, though of different kinds. Benjamin Britten’s Movements for a Clarinet Concerto is the surviving sketch for the opening movement of a concerto which Britten started writing in 1941 for the great American jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman. Gerald Finzi’s Five Bagatelles is a set of short pieces written as a companion piece to Finzi’s well-known Clarinet Concerto – featured on volume 1