This is a useful compilation double CD of Emma Johnson's earlier recordings
(1986-95). Marketed as The essential Emma Johnson in concert and recital
it is really neither. She is accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra
under three conductors over a ten year period, and by three pianists in short
pieces, with harpist Skaila Kanga for Paul Reade's Victorian Kitchen
Garden. Besides the Mozart concerto, recorded with assurance and complete
aplomb in 1984 when she was only 17, we have Schumann's Fantasiestucke
and Finzi's Five Bagatelles plus two other concertos and a multitude
of arrangements for clarinet, mainly of popular pieces. Bernhard Crusell
was the first to perform the Mozart concerto after its publication in 1801;
his name is probably better known now because it was with one of his clarinet
concertos that Emma Johnson captivated TV viewers and the judges to become
BBC Young Musician of the Year. There is a remarkable record of woodwind
victors (in competition with piano and strings) achieving great careers,
e.g. Michael Collins and Nicholas Daniel, oboist, who featured another rarity,
the Vaughan-Williams oboe concerto. Emma Johnson now has world-wide fame
as a soloist, but she is also a committed chamber musician, with her own
group of Emma Johnson and Friends, this aspect of her work not represented
here.
The F minor Crusell concerto is a delight, exploiting the clarinet's potential
in dramatic and wistful melancholic moods. Baermann's Adagio goes
well with its string quartet accompaniment on string orchestra. Malcolm Arnold
wrote his second clarinet concerto for Benny Goodman, who premiered it in
1974, jazzy as you'd expect, the finale a witty Pre-Goodman Rag.
There are good accounts of the Mozart and Schumann works which are cornerstones
of the clarinettist's repertoire; I do not venture to attempt comparative
criticism, and find no fault with the orchestral CD. The Finzi pieces are
heard less often, a welcome example of his individual contribution to 'English
pastoral' music. But to my mind there are far too many short arrangements
for clarinet, variably successful, to make of the second CD a satisfying
recital, with 27 mostly short pieces by 13 composers. Rachmaninoff's
Vocalise has nothing special to say on the clarinet, likewise Rimsky's
Bumblebee. You also get Howard Blake's snowman walking in the air
- I enjoyed that one!
Take it for what it is, don't attempt to play either CD straight through,
and there is a lot of enjoyment to be had. I would welcome, however, a new
CD of Emma Johnson's own favourites, compiled to her personal choice - it
could be very interesting. She is playing marvellously as ever nowadays,
giving delight through her charm and wholehearted commitment, which is always
communicated in her frequent live appearances, where she really excels.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
2CDs ASV
DCS 238 74'52" & 76'22"
