MICHAEL COLLINS - The Virtuoso Clarinet [2010] CHAN 10615 / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The Virtuoso Clarinet, promises the title of this album, and few could argue that it does not deliver: the blazing runs of the Italian pieces here stretch the instrument to its limits, and clarinetist Michael Collins doesn't miss a step. Look no farther than the variations in Alamiro Giampieri's Il carnevale di Venezia, a thoroughly retrospective work that was composed in 1948 but looks back to the traveling virtuoso days of the 19th century. The other Italian work, Donato Lovreglio's Fantasia da concerto su motivi de "La traviata" de G. Verdi, Op. 45, represents a different strain of 19th century music, the popular operatic transcription. Both of those are unusual works, and perhaps an even greater feat than Collins' sheer technical mastery is the digging he undertook to put together an entertaining program that showcases not only virtuosity, but virtuosity of various kinds. Some of these pieces are known to wind students, but they've rarely been heard together as they are here, and a work like André Messager's Solo de concours (Competition Solo) gains from being surrounded by works that exploit the clarinet in a different way. Most of the music is originally for clarinet (the arrangement of Milhaud's Scaramouche, Op. 165b, for clarinet and piano is the composer's own), and the two transcriptions, of Gershwin's Three Preludes and Rachmaninov's Vocalise, each add something to the clarinet vocabulary on display. With suitably circumspect accompaniment from Piers Lane, superb engineering from Chandos, and informative booklet notes (in English, German, and French), this is a recital of instrumental fireworks that anyone might enjoy.  by James Manheim 
Tracklist:
1 Il carnevale di Venezia 6:53  
Alamiro Giampieri
2 Solo de concours 5:32
André Messager
Scaramouche, Op. 165b
3 1. Vif  3:01
Darius Milhaud
4 2. Modéré 4:11
Darius Milhaud
5 3. Brazileira. Mouvement de Samba 2:28
Darius Milhaud
6 Fantasia da concerto su motivi de 'La traviata' di G. Verdi, Op. 45 10:09
Donato Lovreglio
Three Preludes
7 1. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso 1:36
George Gershwin
8 2. Andante con moto e poco rubato 4:19
George Gershwin
9 3. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso 1:17
George Gershwin
10 Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14 5:55
Sergey Rachmaninov
Grand Duo concertante, Op. 48, J 204
11 1. Allegro con fuoco 8:12
Carl Maria von Weber
12 2. Andante con moto 5:14
Carl Maria von Weber
13 3. Rondo. Allegro 5:57
Carl Maria von Weber
14 Carmen Fantasy, Op. 22 9:03
Simon Milton
Credits:
Michael Collins - Clarinet
Piers Lane - Piano

 MICHAEL COLLINS - The Virtuoso Clarinet 

 [2010] CHAN 10615 / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

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