Thumbs Up
Naxos has assembled
an attractive collection of English
clarinet works that are predominantly
in a late-Romantic vein. It is hard
to mention English clarinet music
without references to Frederick
Thurston, a student at the Royal
College of Music (RCM), who was
the greatest clarinettist of his
generation. Thurston’s art inspired
a large quantity of clarinet music
from composers such as Bliss, Arnold,
Ireland, Bax, Finzi, Rawsthorne
and William Lloyd Webber.
The attractive
opening score is from Edward German
who, although writing in several
genres, is mainly remembered today
for his music for the stage; notably
the comic opera Merrie England
(1902). German’s Romance
is the earliest score on the
disc and clarinettist John Bradbury
and pianist James Cryer provide
a relaxing and well paced reading
for this undemanding listening experience.
Composed in 1934
Bax’s Sonata two movement Sonata
is dedicated to his friend Hugh
Prew an amateur clarinettist. The
premiere was given by Frederick
Thurston and pianist Harriet Cohen
at a recital of the London Contemporary
Music Centre at the Cowdray Hall
in 1935. In this interpretation
the good humoured first movement
Molto moderato is pervaded
with nostalgic yearning. Largely
brisk music the second movement
Allegro Vivace is hectic
and waspish with technical demands
of considerable virtuosity required
from John Bradbury.
Edwin Roxburgh
was a composition pupil of Herbert
Howells at the RCM and later studied
with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and
with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence.
The Four Wordsworth Miniatures,
composed in 1998, were commissioned
by Linda Merrick who premiered the
score. The four movements have been
given descriptive titles by the
composer and these are narrated
here as a preface to the performance.
John Bradbury communicates a serious
character to the opening miniature
Calm Is The Fragrant Air
whilst Waters On A Starry Night
is frenetic and virtuosic. Thoughts
That Do Often Lie Too Deep For Tears
is yearning music that emanates
from the lowest registers of the
clarinet and in the final piece
The Cataracts Blow Their Trumpet
the soloist is in an upbeat and
playful mood.
One of Gerald Finzi’s
finest scores is his celebrated
Clarinet Concerto
composed for Thurston in 1948-49.
His fondness for the clarinet is
demonstrated the Five Bagatelles,
Op. 23 written around a decade earlier
(1938-43) and intended for clarinettist
Pauline Juler. The attractive suite
of five distinctive short movements
has become a cornerstone of the
clarinet repertoire and has been
arranged into various alternative
scorings. A bright and breezy Prelude
contains a melancholic central section;
Bradbury is sad and mournful in
the Romance and the calm
and engaging Carol has a
strong nostalgic tinge. In the Forlana
Bradbury and Cryer convey a
fresh, outdoor feel and the light
and brisk Fughetta makes
for an optimistic conclusion.
William Hurlstone
was a star composition student of
Stanford at the RCM. In 1906 Hurlstone
became Professor of Counterpoint
at the College but his career was
cut short later that year by his
untimely death. A clarinettist himself,
Hurlstone wrote his Four Characteristic
Pieces for George Clinton in
1899, a suite that deserves to be
a staple of the repertoire. The
opening piece is the creative Ballade
generously crammed with ideas and
emotional contrasts. Bradbury and
Cryer in this interpretation of
the much admired Croon Song evoke
comforting images of a domestic
nature. The dance-like Intermezzo
has a scurrying quality and the
concluding Scherzo with its
character of a fresh, cool breeze
suggests a bracing walk on the hills.
We are told nothing
in the booklet notes about composer
Paul Patterson who I discovered
studied trombone at the Royal Academy
of Music before concentrating on
composition. Patterson’s teachers
were Richard Stoker, Elisabeth Lutyens
and Richard Rodney Bennett. In 1994
he was selected to represent Britain
in series of 50 works to commemorate
the fiftieth anniversary of Béla
Bartók’s death. These were
being broadcast by Hungarian radio
on the European Broadcasting Union.
Patterson’s contribution to the
series is his single movement Soliloquy.
This virtuosic showpiece for solo
clarinet is a paraphrase on a theme
from the fifth movement of Bartók’s
1943 Concerto for Orchestra.
Bradbury awakens the Soliloquy
from its generally carefree
disposition with sporadic jazzy
salvos demanding considerable skill
and brilliance.
William Lloyd Webber
was a student of Vaughan Williams
at the RCM becoming in 1946 a professor
at the college and teaching harmony
and counterpoint. Lloyd Webber wrote
a suite of six Country Impressions
in 1960 for a variety of wind instruments
with piano accompaniment. One of
this series was Frensham Pond,
Aquarelle. The picturesquely
titled miniature Frensham Pond
(not On Frensham Pond as
stated in the notes) is to my ears
one of the most attractive works
that Lloyd Webber wrote. Frensham
pond is situated close to Farnham
in Surrey and in the score the players
give a sunny and endearing performance
that evokes a gentle impression
of water, woodland and heath. At
just over double the length of Frensham
Pond, the earlier score Air
and Variations bore a dedication
to, "Frederick Thurston
and his pupils at the RCM".
With adroitness and affection the
partners relish the variety of mood
and Bradbury seems to savour the
increased opportunity for virtuoso
clarinet display.
Bliss, who also
studied with Stanford at the RCM,
developed into one of the most influential
figures in British music and was
regarded for some years as an enfant
terrible. Following his knighthood
in 1950 he was awarded the prestigious
appointment as Master of the Queen’s
Musick. The Battle of the Somme
in 1916 tragically took the life
of Bliss’s brother Kennard and the
impressive Pastoral, a
fitting lamentation for clarinet
and piano, was composed soon after.
Bliss clearly enjoyed writing for
the clarinet and in 1932 wrote a
well regarded Clarinet Quintet
for Thurston. I consider the
Pastoral to be one of Bliss’s
finest works and the partnership
of Bradbury and Cryer demonstrate
their considerable affection for
the score. One feels swept way on
a tide of haunting emotion joining
Bliss on a rare quasi-pastoral excursion.
Perhaps the finest
performed and recorded rival version
of English clarinet music likely
to be encountered in the catalogues
are from Thea King and Clifford
Benson from 1989 at St George’s,
Brandon Hill on Hyperion Dyad CDD22027.
The Hyperion set duplicates the
Finzi, Hurlstone and Bliss scores
and is coupled with the Stanford
Clarinet Sonata, Ferguson
Four Short Pieces, Howells
Clarinet Sonata, Reizenstein
Arabesques and the Cooke
Clarinet Sonata.
As usual I sound
tested this disc on six or so different
CD players before writing about
the sound quality. This Naxos disc
recorded at the Wathen Hall in Barnes
was not one that immediately sounded
appealing as on two of my players
some peak level regulation was necessary
to tone down the fierceness, although
there were no problems with my other
players. After the required adjustment
I was left with a consistently warm
and bright, clear and well balanced
sound.
Hugh Prew was it
seems the dedicatee of Bax’s Sonata
and a member of the composer’s cricket
team. This fact has inspired the
author of the booklet notes to give
over a whole page to cricket references
in the form of a timeline that links
the composition dates of the scores
to key events in the English cricket
year. The inclusion of these cricket
statistics, extraneous to the music,
seems to have been researched at
the expense of relevant information
on the actual scores. Unless I’m
mistaken nowhere does it mention
that both Roxburgh’s Four Wordsworth
Miniatures and Patterson’s Soliloquy
are works for solo clarinet not
clarinet and piano.
This Naxos disc
is a splendid achievement and clarinet
soloist John Bradbury, supported
by James Cryer, make a strong case
for this collection of English clarinet
music; much of which is rarely heard.
I especially enjoyed Hurlstone’s
delightful Four Characteristic
Pieces and Finzi’s Five Bagatelles
are sublime.
Michael Cookson
John Bradbury (clarinet) 
