This Chandos release by clarinetist Peter Cigleris offers the rediscoveries promised by the title. All of the works are receiving their world recorded premieres except for the Clarinet Concerto of Elizabeth Maconchy, and even that is hardly a commonly heard item. The pieces all favor the clarinet and receive lively and attractive performances from Cigleris. Two of the works have prominent harp parts, and these are well handled by harpist Deian Rowlands and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ben Palmer and recorded ...
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This Chandos release by clarinetist Peter Cigleris offers the rediscoveries promised by the title. All of the works are receiving their world recorded premieres except for the Clarinet Concerto of Elizabeth Maconchy, and even that is hardly a commonly heard item. The pieces all favor the clarinet and receive lively and attractive performances from Cigleris. Two of the works have prominent harp parts, and these are well handled by harpist Deian Rowlands and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ben Palmer and recorded with good clarity by Chandos at Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff. All of the works date from the years on either side of World War II, and hearing them together provides fresh testimony to how the evolution from British nationalism to modernism was a gradual change rather than a clean break, as is especially evident in the Maconchy concerto of 1945. Perhaps the most important new acquaintance to make is the Concerto for clarinet, harp, and orchestra of Rudolph Dolmetsch. He was the father of...
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