Presto Editor's Choice
May 2021

Gramophone Magazine
September 2021
Editor's Choice

Michael Collins (clarinet), Noriko Ogawa (piano)

Debussy: Rhapsody for clarinet & piano (or orchestra), L. 116 'Première rapsodie'
Widor: Introduction et Rondo (op. 72)
Saint-Saëns: Clarinet Sonata in E flat major, Op. 167
Messager: Solo de concours
Rabaud: Solo de concours, Op. 10
Poulenc: Sonata for Two Clarinets, Op. 7
Poulenc: Clarinet Sonata, Op. 184

Up until around 1900 the clarinet repertoire was dominated by music from the German-speaking lands, largely due to the influence of three outstanding clarinettists. Inspired by Anton Stadler, Heinrich Bärmann and Richard Mühlfeld respectively, Mozart, Weber and Brahms composed some of the finest clarinet works ever written. But especially after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French cultural establishment became increasingly concerned with cultivating a national voice of its own, and Michael Collins’s new release is a reminder of this. The works recorded here all date from the last years of the 19th century and afterwards, and it is striking that four of them (Debussy, Widor, Messager and Rabaud) were written as competition pieces for the Paris Conservatoire –the institution which played such a decisive role in shaping French musical life. But even though they were commissioned for educational purposes there is nothing academic about them: from Debussy’s seductive Rhapsodie to Messager’s light-heartedly brilliant Solo de concours there is instead a definite French – maybe even Parisian – quality to them. This also applies to the Clarinet Sonata by Saint-Saëns, composed in the last year of his life but full of charm and courtly irony. Closing the disc are two works from either end of Francis Poulenc’s life. While the brief Sonata for two clarinets from 1918 is pure and cheeky fun, the 1962 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano is more conflicted emotionally, as indicated by the first movement’s tempo marking Allegro tristamente. Throughout the greater part of the programme, Collins is partnered by Noriko Ogawa, whose pianism has won her particular acclaim in French repertoire, with Sérgio Pires making a guest appearance in Poulenc’s clarinet duo.

"This lovely programme is the perfect companion for an early summer’s evening: though several of the works here were written as competition-pieces for the Paris Conservatoire, everything feels like real chamber-music rather than display-vehicles, with Collins and Ogawa bringing bags of poise and wit to the entire programme. Poulenc’s tiny Sonata for Two Clarinets (for which Collins is joined by Sérgio Pires) is such fun that I found myself wishing it was at least four times longer." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical, May 2021.