Joseph KÜFFNER (1777-1856)
Introduction, Theme and Variations, Op.32 (attrib Carl Maria von Weber)
[10:22]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Septet in E flat, Op.20 (1780) [41:01]
Johann STRAUSS II (1825-1899)
Frühlingsstimmen, Op.410 (1883, arr. Emma Johnson) [2:30]
Perpetuum mobile, Op.257 (1862, arr. Emma Johnson) [3:44]
Emma Johnson (clarinet)
Carducci String Quartet
Chris West (double bass)
Philip Gibson (bassoon)
Peter Francombe (horn)
rec. live, October 2017, Turner Sims, University of Southampton
SOMM RECORDINGS SOMM0190 [57:38]
The centrepiece of this concert given at Turner Sims concert hall at the University of Southampton on 7 October 2017 is the Beethoven Septet. It’s played by the first-class team of Emma Johnson, Peter Francombe (long-serving principal horn of the Northern Sinfonia), experienced bassoonist (Garsington Opera, Rambert Dance Company) Philip Gibbon, bassist Chris West, a frequent principal guest in London orchestras, and the Carducci Quartet, whose Glass quartets on Naxos are well-known and who have been recording a complete Shostakovich cycle. More to the point, they have worked with Emma Johnson on disc before, as has Chris West, when they recorded a Schubert and Crusell disc for Somm.
The Septet receives a well-sprung and rhythmically alert reading. Fortunately, the bass line is both nicely defined and well recorded and the emotional character of the movements is astutely judged. In the Adagio cantabile, for example, the second of the six Divertimento-like movements (Mozart’s K563, the Divertimento for string trio being the exemplar) the music is appositely expressive but not unduly so. The Menuet is genially dispatched – Francombe is especially good here - and the Theme and Variations sees opportunities for individual and corporate excellence. With a vivacious Scherzo and a March finale that provokes rightful applause, this is a strong performance with only a very few instances where ensemble is not of the studio-sanitised kind.
The disc actually opens with the Introduction, Theme and Variations for clarinet and strings long attributed to Weber but now thought to have been composed by Joseph Küffner. Over the supportive string bed Johnson spins a sweetly lyric line before engaging in some piquant and agile runs – liquid or puckish as the music demands - in the variations. And to finish in suitably confident fashion Emma Johnson herself provides arrangements for all eight players of two pieces by Johann Strauss II. Roses from the South will appeal to lovers of its warmth and lyricism whilst the Perpetuum mobile offers a real dash of drollery, a witty bass line and a pay-off that brings laughter from the audience.
With a nicely produced booklet, as always with Somm, and a sympathetic recording this collaboration proves as engaging as the earlier Johnson-Carducci disc.
Jonathan Woolf
