Kommer - Clarinet Concerto
Spohr - Clarinet Concerto
Bliss; Meyer; Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Sillito

EMI 379 7862

Release date July 2007

Clarinettists today have a great deal for which to thank Louis Spohr. The four concertos written especially for the instrument stand alongside those written by Weber and Crusell and together they form the majority of the early romantic repertoire for the clarinet. It is possibly because of their technical superiority that the Spohr concertos are often over-looked and rarely performed, but arguably they are more substantial musically than both the Crusell and the Weber concertos. The composer himself was a violin virtuoso and an outstanding figure of the early romantic period and the first concerto was written at the request of clarinettist Johann Simon Hermstedt in 1808. Spohr knew of the range of the instrument and little else and wrote at times as if it were a violin but the concerto was well performed and equally well received and prompted three more to be written over the next twenty years. Here on disc we witness a winning choice of artists with recording veteran Sabine Meyer performing the Fourth Concerto in E minor and her student, the already internationally successful Julian Bliss, tackling the Second in E flat major. It is Meyer who has the warmer, more solid Germanic sound, partially because the fourth concerto was written for the mellower clarinet in A. Bliss, still only 17, plays with magnificent authority and revels in the virtuosity of the work. His tone, though beautiful in the lower registers, seems to suffer from slight altitude sickness; it becomes rather thin at times in the upper register and his intonation is not always spot on. Nevertheless, his articulation and musicianship is enviable at what is still an extremely young age. The disc opens with the Krommer Double Clarinet Concerto which is most enjoyable. The interplay between the two solo parts is most endearing and whilst this is not going to win any awards for being the most intellectually stimulating composition ever written it provides the perfect opportunity for two fine clarinettists to make the most of an instrument that shines in this kind of repertoire.

Reviewed by Dawn Cooke