Serban NICHIFOR (b.1954)
Two Dances for Andrew Simon (2003) [4:55]
Joseph HOROVITZ (b.1926)
Two Majorcan pieces (1956) [4:09]
Sonatina for clarinet and piano (1981) [13:31]
Diversions on a Familiar Theme (1997) [7:46]
Witold LUTOSLAWSKI (1913-1994)
Dance Preludes (version for clarinet and piano) (1955) [11:03]
Arnold COOKE (1906-2006)
Sonata in B flat for clarinet and piano (1959) [20:06]
Malcolm ARNOLD (1921-2006)
Sonatina in G minor for clarinet and piano, Op. 29 (1951) [8:05]
Ebony and Ivory (Andrew Simon (clarinet), Warren Lee (piano))
rec. 21-23 November 2012, Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK.
NAXOS 8.573022 [69:35]
Bursting forth with Serban Nichifor’s A Musical Joke
and Carnyx (pieces dedicated to Andrew Simon), this CD
immediately entices its listener. Inspired by Romanian folk music
and jazz, Two Dances for Andrew Simon is spicy and rhythmically
athletic. Recorded at Wyastone Hall, to a certain extent these
pieces are engulfed in an airy, hollow interior. Though this does
not detract from Simon’s great skill and impressionable
character, a more intimate setting for these quirky pieces would
have been better.
Two Majorcan Pieces emerged out of Joseph Horovitz’s
honeymoon in Paguera (the title of the first piece) with his wife
Anna in 1956. Sensitive to the swelling affection and jollity
inherent in these pieces, Simon, accompanied by the magical Warren
Lee, plays with grace and imagination. With a chocolate tone which
emerges out of a sensitive, rolling piano backdrop, the duo begins
Horovitz’s Sonatina. Lee sets the sombre mood for
the second movement (Lento, quasi andante). Here the
sense of loss and introversion is evoked through the tenderness
of the clarinet’s lower register. With its bluesy piano
part and lively clarinet rhythms, the final movement makes the
listener retract from drawing parallels with Finzi’s altogether
more serious and lucid Clarinet Concerto, though that
composer’s influence is certainly there. With an intriguing
admixture of lyricism and clownishness, this composition rightfully
holds a prominent place amongst the clarinet repertoire. Along
with works by Cooke and Arnold, Horovitz’s Sonatina
can be heard performed by Michael Collins (clarinet) and Michael
McHale (piano) on British Clarinet Sonatas (Chandos CHAN
10758).
Diversions on a Familiar Theme (that theme being Schumann’s
Merry Peasant) is chirpy and light-hearted. Simon and
Lee intertwine perfectly as the piece sways from expressive to
contemplative states, waltz to march. Perhaps such togetherness
and coherency is due to their concerted effort to work with the
composer himself when recording each piece. Horovitz openly thanked
the two musicians for their collaborative approach saying: ‘I
much appreciate that Andrew and Warren visited me in London in
November 2012 to discuss their approach to these clarinet works’
adding ‘I am delighted with their performances on this CD,
which retain all my own ideas and display the artists’ individual
technical brilliance and sensitivity to every detail’.
Written in 1955, Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s Dance
Preludes are both influenced by and stand distinctly apart
from Polish folk music. The second dance in particular is expansive,
thought-provoking and atmospheric. Lutoslawski’s style in
these pieces demonstrates how he used harmonies from small groups
of musical intervals and developed them throughout the piece,
exploring each mutation and altercation that could be made. A
sense of his aleatoric process is evident in the third dance.
Both Simon and Lee extract this spontaneity, though they do not
lose track of the composer’s subtle contemplative quality;
the fourth dance is a perfect example of this paradoxical duality
and oppositional dialogue between clarinet and piano. Though Lutoslawski
admired Karol Szymanowski, his music also contains the dappled
hints of Debussy and Ravel alongside the structural certainty
and adventurousness of Beethoven. Overall, one dominant strand
emerges here and that is Lutoslawski’s good humour and spirit.
Studying with Paul Hindemith at the Berlin Hochschüle fur
Musik, Yorkshire-born Arnold Cooke’s Sonata is
like an Anglicized version of Hindemith’s Clarinet Sonata.
Meandering in and out of major and minor keys until the very end,
this does not immediately convey all. Cooke’s mastery. Both
Simon and Lee offer glimpses, they do not shine a spotlight on
the piece. This understated emotion comes through in the slow
movement (Adagio ma non troppo) where Cooke’s harmonic
fluidity is clearly understood and astutely conveyed.
Acknowledging Berlioz, Mahler and Bartók as his major influences
Malcolm Arnold draws from an excitingly diverse stock. This eclecticism
can be felt through this performance of his Sonatina in G
minor, Op. 29. Originally dedicated to Frederick Thurston
and with its accessible fast-slow-fast structure, this is bright
and breezy. From the opening movement, both Simon and Lee sound
as if performing this was tremendous fun. This recording captures
that camaraderie and sense of revelry.
The music on this disc is like ‘the social act of communication
among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.’
Lucy Jeffery
Previous review: Byzantion
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