Reawakened
Champs Hill Records
Robert Plane, clarinet | BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra | Martyn Brabbins
Hamilton Clarinet Concerto, Op. 7
Gipps Clarinet Concerto in G minor, Op. 9
Walthew Clarinet Concerto, orch. Alfie Pugh
Ireland Fantasy Sonata, orch. Graham Parlett
Reviews:
‘Each of these four works is heard in première recordings courtesy of clarinettist Robert Plane, who continues to prove as adroit a practitioner as he is programmer. He’s ferreted in the repertoire of British clarinet works to include a Royal Philharmonic Society award-winning concerto by Iain Hamilton that has not been performed in half a century, a turn-of-the-twentieth-century concerto by Richard H Walthew – I first heard of Walthew many years ago in connection with his clever piece Mosaic – Ruth Gipps’s lovely wartime Concerto and John Ireland’s Fantasy Sonata (but not in the way one usually hears it, rather in an orchestration by Graham Parlett).
Hamilton’s Concerto was composed in 1950 and offers a harlequinade flourish, a kind of clarinet Til Eulenspiegel feel, with pirouetting wit tinged with Waltonian swagger rhythms. Slow introspective ideas fuse with strongly jazzy cadences. I agree with sleeve note writer Daniel Jaffé that the slow movement’s horn writing evokes Britten’s Serenade but the concise agitation and associated percussive writing are all Hamilton’s own. The luminous winding down, passion spent, is notably successful and prepares one for impish Bartókian figures in a finale full of virtuosity and flair. The co-ordination between soloist and orchestra sounds tricky but Plane and Martyn Brabbins negotiate things with sang froid, reflect and soliloquise over past themes and draw things eloquently together. It is indeed a mystery why this fine work has sunk so deeply.
Ruth Gipps’ Concerto dates from 1940 and is both more concise and less quixotic in its influences. Orchestration is deft and apposite and as befits a Vaughan Williams pupil, the work is reflective of his influence. This is an elegant work with a fantasia-like fluidity to it that ensures a naturally conversational and songful intimacy. The oboe was Gipps’ own instrument so when it joins the clarinet in the central movement, chamber intimacy is assured, Finzi-like in its ethereal beauty. To banish care, a jaunty jig brings this delicious work to a close.
Walthew wrote his Concerto in 1902. It is almost – almost but not quite – complete but its manuscript was left unorchestrated. Into this breach steps Alfie Pugh. It’s a genial, old school and solidly Germanic affair, presumably influenced by the then pervasive figure of clarinettist Richard Mühfeld. There is some con bravura writing, a good first movement cadenza, with a Mendelssohnian Violin Concerto bridge between the first two movements. The songful slow movement put me in mind of Ombra mai fù more than once and there are certainly Lighter Music elements at work. Mendelssohn is the primary impulse in the finale but there is plenty of frolicsome energy to enjoy. Frederick Thurston gave the first performance of John Ireland’s Fantasy Sonata and it’s one of the composer’s best-known and recorded pieces. To inflate it in this way runs the risk of grandiosity but fortunately Parlett’s string orchestral work emphasises the pastoral nature of the work. I’m sure admirers will return to this new version whilst clearly respecting the chamber original.
The excellent standards of production here enhance a clever selection of pieces and moods. ‘Reawakened’ is the disc’s title; you can also go for Restored, Revivified or simply Reclaimed. Whichever you decide on, you’ll be assured of splendid and fully communicative performances.’ MusicWeb International
“Robert Plane has done more than his share of reawakening for the clarinet repertoire, and this latest album features three British concertos which are more than deserving reappraisal. That by Iain Hamilton (1950) was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society prize and helped establish his reputation. Its amalgam of Bartókian rhythmic incisiveness with a melodic poise redolent of Walton sounds very much of its time, but the technical command of its writing for soloist and orchestra compels admiration, as does its motivic resourcefulness. More modest in scope, the Concerto (1940) by Ruth Gipps is no less assured in content – hence the initial Allegro moderato’s deceptively rhapsodic unfolding or the Lento ma con moto’s affecting pathos, though these could have been better served than by the final Vivace’s short-windedness and unvaried jig-trot motion.
Between these pieces, Richard Walthew’s Concerto (1902) is a reminder that this authority on chamber music of the Classical and Romantic eras was, in his earlier years, a composer of promise. Its three movements linked in the style of Mendelssohn, it could well pass as a concerto by the teenage Strauss in an engaging liveliness and melodic charm recalling Elgar, even German. The piano score has been idiomatically orchestrated by Alfie Pugh and ought to find favour, while Graham Parlett’s arrangement of John Ireland’s Fantasy-Sonata (1943) for strings enables the wider dissemination of the most finely realised among its composer’s later works. Its ruminative expression is here accorded subtler shades, while those vigorous outer sections framing the whole exude a verve more appealing for being so uncharacteristic.
All four pieces could not have more sympathetic advocacy than by Plane, whose virtuosity is keenly abetted by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. With vivid and realistic sound, and informative notes from Daniel Jaffé, this is an enjoyable and worthwhile release.”
January 2021
Gramophone Magazine, Richard Whitehouse
“Whether gurgling with rhetorical truculence or sinking into tenderly melancholic sighs, Plane has the [Hamilton Clarinet Concerto’s] full measure, benefiting from a recording balance that puts the soloist first, though the acoustic still leaves plenty of room for the spirited splendours of Martyn Brabbins’s Scottish troops. All told, a thrilling rediscovery from an unfairly neglected composer.”
6 Aug 2020
BBC Music Magazine, Geoff Brown
“No praise is too high for Robert Plane’s musicianship, virtuosity and sensitivity”
27 Jul 2020
Colin’s Column, Colin Anderson
“They’re all played with a sense of conviction that these are real gems”
25 Jul 2020
BBC Radio 3 Record Review, Andrew McGregor
Related news: ‘Reawakened’ at no 7. in Official Specialist Classical Chart
31 Jul 2020