William ALWYN (1905-1982)
Clarinet Sonata (1962) [12:26]
John CARMICHAEL (b.1930)
Fêtes Champêtres [13:38]
Aria and Finale [15:42]
Clive JENKINS (b.1938)
Five Pieces for clarinet and piano (2003) [12:42]
Cecil Armstrong GIBBS (1889-1960)
Three Pieces for clarinet and piano (1950s) [9:01]
John IRELAND (1879-1962)
Fantasy-Sonata (1943) [14:12]
Peter Cigleris (clarinet)
Antony Gray (piano)
rec. August 2010, Royal College of Music Studios
CALA CACD77015 [76:41]
The excellent clarinettist Peter Cigleris, together with fine pianist
Antony Gray, has constructed a good-looking recital that balances works
from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s with more contemporary fare.
The focus is on British music, though John Carmichael is Australian. Alwyn’s
Clarinet Sonata of 1962 receives a richly committed performance, fluid
with regard to rubato, sensitively coloured, and showing due regard for
the pacing of the many incidents in this twelve-minute work. Its refined
lyricism jostles with a very assertive sense of self, almost as if chamber
intimacies were vacuum-packed with film music outtakes; the final section
features a spectacular dismount, and the performers are fully up to its
rigorous and exciting demands. Carmichael’s Fêtes Champêtres
has traces of Poulenc and is freshly lyrical. Cast in Baroque sounding
movements — Pastorale, Passepied, Berceuse
and Rigaudon — Carmichael ensures sufficient contrast always
to interest the ear. The wistful B section in the Rigaudon is
especially distinguished. His Aria and Finale is the longest
work here, at nearly 16 minutes in this performance. Originally written
for soprano saxophone it translates well to the clarinet. The long lyrical
lines, a touch impressionist, are certainly well suited for the instrument.
The light-hearted dialogues in the Finale are both fulsome and
loquacious; there’s a good cadenza and much graceful writing offering
excellent opportunities for variety of tone colour, rubato and elasticity
of phrasing. Perhaps it’s a touch too long; my only complaint.
Clive Jenkins’ Five Pieces was written in 2003 and premiered
by the composer and Cigleris. These artful little pieces are a constant
delight. The central one has a light dusting of Fauré at the outset, and
has taken on a life of its own. Originally written as an orchestral entr’acte
it was for years the signature tune for a BBC Radio Devon programme. Rightly
so: it’s a memorable theme. To add to the pleasure there’s a witty fugue
and a whirling waltz to conclude. Armstrong Gibbs’ Three Pieces
embrace a March theme, not unlike unwritten film music, and a delightful
song-without-words in the shape of a second movement Air.
The disc itself finishes with a performance of John Ireland’s sonata,
performances of which are coming much more often these days. Cigleris
has listened to Ireland’s own performance, he notes; this is the off-air
broadcast with Frederick Thurston that featured on a couple of BBC3 Radio
broadcasts and then was made commercially available. Despite Ireland’s
strictures on piano chordal weight and steady tempi, I’ve noted before
that he frequently clips his recommended timings in his own works. It’s
the same in this Sonata where he and Thurston take around 13 and a half
minutes, a similar timing adopted by Michael Collins in his most recent
Collins disc. Cigleris and Gray take 14:12, similar to Gervase de Peyer
and Eric Parkin on Lyrita. In the end it’s a relatively small difference,
though it’s not without consequences, and what matters most is how one
binds its three moods, the rhapsodic quality of which needs to be subject
to some control. Fortunately this pairing is not lacking, and they bring
nuance and insight to bear, as well as fine tone and ensemble, as indeed
they do the whole well recorded recital.
Jonathan Woolf
Nuance and insight, fine tone and ensemble in this well recorded recital.
See a[so review by Rob Barnett
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