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CD: Crotchet
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John Dankworth has said that he has written, in his Suite for Emma, "the music I would like to hear Emma Johnson play." Suite for Emma is a five movement work written in a very old fashioned style with a bit of jazz thrown in, and it takes itself very seriously indeed. I cannot warm to this kind of music for it has no personality of its own – it's all far too reminiscent of too many other composers – especially, in this case, of the "cow pat" school, and the music is ultra-safe – never daring to try anything out of the ordinary. This would make a really good suite for young clarinetists at school who are looking for something slightly different to play at their end of term concert, but as a fully fledged work for the concert hall, it has far too much competition, and so much of that competition is better music. The Picture of Jeannie is a brief set of variations on Stephen Foster's I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair. It's very cute and clever but with nothing to grab one’s attention. I find it odd that as Dankworth, as a clarinetist himself, seems unable to vary the tonal palette of his own instrument for these compositions; it all sounds the same in its limited tone production, colour and emotional range. 

The Bernstein and Copland are much better pieces in every respect – and two of the works weren't even conceived for the clarinet!! Bernstein's Sonata is his opus one and a very assured piece it is. In two compact movements it has a lot to say and it says it succinctly and then moves on. Not a note is wasted in this work – there simply isn't time! The second movement shows exactly how a little jazz can really perk up a work which is already rich in rhythm – this is one of the many things missing in Dankworth's pieces – and the music really lives! Bernstein could have been a significant composer for the concert hall, but, in reality, his talents lay in front of an orchestra – but here, and in his Jeremiah Symphony which followed this work, we can see just what might have been. 

Chamber music isn’t what one would think of when the name of Aaron Copland is mentioned. The western ballets, the Symphonies, the Piano Variations and some of the shorter orchestral works all readily comer to mind, but chamber pieces? Copland wrote an handful of works for chamber ensembles; the early Vitebsk, for piano trio, the serial Piano Quartet - a work of rare beauty - and the Nonet for Strings seem to get more recordings than live performances, and, given the contemporary repertoire for violin and piano it is odd that Copland's Violin Sonata doesn't get played more often than it does. It is a lovely, lyrical, work, full of his open air style, with lots of rhythmic drive, and the kind of laid-back Americana we find in many of his works. Nearly 40 years after writing the piece, Copland reworked it for clarinet and piano and it makes a very fine Clarinet Sonata! Nowhere is one conscious of the fact that this is not original clarinet music – it simply falls so easily on the wind instrument. There is a lot of long breathed melody in this work and this is exactly the kind of thing which works so well on the clarinet, and that is one of the reasons why this version of the work is such a winner. Emma Johnson and John Lenehan realise the full stature of this work and give it a truly inspiring performance, it's worth the price of the disk for this performance alone. The little Nocturne was written in the 1920s as a companion piece to a Ukelele Serenade for violin and piano. Like the Violin Sonata, with its long melodies and distinctly bluesy sound, this makes perfect clarinet music. Johnson relishes the long lines really sings as if her man had done gone and left her. 

Some reservations then;  the playing is superb throughout – how could it not be when two such exciting and talented young players are at work – but the choice of repertoire left me unhappy for, as stated above, the Dankworth pieces, worthy though they are, are not in the same class as either the Bernstein or the Copland works. I can understand Johnson wishing to record these pieces for they were created for her, but sometimes one has to stand back and view the music to see if it really can hold its own in the context in which you wish to place it.

Bob Briggs

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