This is the second
instalment in Campion’s Clarinet
Kaleidoscope series, the first of
which was reviewed by Rob Barnett back
in January
2004. It offers quite an array of
light music, most of it in miniature.
It really does require the performers
to explore and exploit the character
of each to the full if one is to differentiate
each from what has gone before. Quite
a challenge on a 26-track disc and,
sadly, one that is not met. There are
other caveats too, but more on those
later.
The disc gets off to
a promising start with Sir Malcolm Arnold’s
rumbustious Scherzetto, written
for the 1954 film You Know What Sailors
Are. It is pure Ealing comedy, yet
even when writing slapstick Arnold always
exhibits a certain urbanity and wit.
Pianist, composer and
conductor Gavin Sutherland’s yearning
Air für Zwei, originally
for piano and strings, was recast as
a birthday present for Verity Butler
in 2003. It’s a moody, restless little
piece, the piano shadowing the clarinet
for much of the time. It’s a highly
personal piece the players must know
well, so why does it sound under-rehearsed?
Butler and Sutherland are credited as
the recording producers and one can’t
help but wonder whether an essential
critical distance is lost when the roles
of producer and performer are combined.
That is not to say
the performers aren’t up to the task;
indeed, Philip Lane’s jaunty little
Divertissement makes more demands
of the clarinet’s upper register, demands
that Butler meets easily enough. A pleasant
diversion, this, with a slinky, Joplinesque
Valse Americaine and an energetic
Tarantelle – Rondeau.
Time now for the more
serious reservations. In his review
of the duo’s first disc Rob Barnett
commented on the ‘stonily resonant tones’
of the piano. There is a similar problem
here, and as one progresses through
the disc the frankly peculiar piano
sound becomes a real bar to enjoyment.
The recording is given a very shallow
acoustic, with the piano either over-bright
in the treble or all but inaudible in
the bass. A very strange aural perspective
that highlights the clarinet rather
more than is comfortable or natural.
Even that lacks vibrancy and glow in
this unforgiving acoustic.
Eric Tomlinson’s gentle,
bucolic Serenade is certainly
easier on the ear but Matthew Curtis’s
lilting Irish Lullaby falls victim
to the airless recording, with a curiously
muffled final note on the piano.
The waltz makes a return
- well, almost - in David Lyon’s piece,
sounding remarkably like a hurdy-gurdy
at times. Butler has no trouble articulating
the notes but again the piano contribution
is disappointing. Ditto the Lloyd Webber,
whose appealing swan-like grace calls
for rather more elegance than this.
The longer pieces by
Gordon Jacob and John Fox - four movements
and six respectively - are full of lovely
melodies and, in the case of the Four
Short Pieces, one longs for the
natural colours in the music to shine
through. The opening movement of Fox’s
Six Sketches is rhythmically
more ambitious, with a splendid dialogue
between piano and clarinet, while the
third movement has a repeated, rollicking
piano melody that harks back to the
slapstick of Arnold’s Scherzetto.
The 1940s jazz flavour
of Billy Amstell’s Stick O’Liquorice
is nicely delivered, while in the
‘Live Bonus Track’, Nostalgia
Too, Sutherland and Butler are in
a more relaxed, almost improvisatory,
mood. It is a rather uninspired medley
on Spread a Little Happiness
by Vivian Ellis, Ray Noble’s Love
is the Sweetest Thing and Novello’s
The Leap Year Waltz. The recording
makes the clarinet sound rather more
reedy than usual in the higher registers
and, as before, the piano is not ideally
caught. A lacklustre end to what ought
to have been a much more enjoyable disc.
By their nature miniatures
need to appeal quickly and directly
to the listener if they are to make
their mark. Despite the recording some
of these pieces do succeed, but one
senses that most are not being heard
to their best advantage in terms of
either performance or recording.
The booklet offers
brief thumbnails on the composers and
the pieces played. The cover artwork
is similarly uninspiring and the overall
effect is of a project agreed and executed
without paying enough attention to detail.
For a disc that retails at £12.50 on
Campion’s own website that simply will
not do.
I really wanted to
like this disc – and it does contain
some eminently likeable pieces – but
the untidy playing and poor recording
make listening much more of an effort
than a pleasure.
Dan Morgan
for details
Verity Butler (clarinet) 
