The Virtuoso CLARINET, Volume 2

"... This warmly recorded recital continues the good work established by Collins in the earlier volume." --MusicWeb-International.com, June 2014

“Michael Collins and his pianist Michael McHale present us with a programme of pieces all expertly written for the clarinet, and very entertaining too… This CD has been planned with great care, taking the listener from one enticing piece to the next in sheer delight.” --Gramophone magazine, April 2014 

↪ Volume 1

Michael Collins (clarinet) & Michael McHale (piano)

Chandos exclusive artist Michael Collins here presents the second volume in his series designed to display the extraordinarily wide range of music written for the clarinet. Volume 1 was BBC Music Magazine Editor’s Choice and received IRR Outstanding from International Record Review, which stated: ‘It is difficult to imagine a finer performance than is given here.’

Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie was written as a test piece for the Paris Conservatoire and contrasts long lyrical lines with capricious acrobatics for the clarinet, being described by the composer as ‘hovering between reverie and scherzo’.

Pieces by Rabaud and Widor, also written for the Paris Conservatoire, test the abilities of the player with their exuberant displays of virtuosity. A jazz influence is present in other works on the release. The Clarinet Sonata which Bernstein wrote at the start of his career is a vivid testimony to his early promise and his fascination with jazz. Milhaud’s Duo concertant and Martinů’s Sonatina were composed in 1956 and demonstrate a diversity of influence, both combining folk and jazz elements. Each of the four Time Pieces by Muczynski highlights some specific characteristic of the clarinet in terms of range, technical prowess, tone colour, and expressiveness.

"... it is impossible not to admire his dextrous skill, musicality and joie de vivre. In all, this is a very well-constructed and pleasurable album." --International Record Review, April 2014

La Clarinette Française

“This truly outstanding CD is not only ideally programmed and superbly played - using a clarinet from 1830 and a Bechstein from 1870 - but most naturally recorded too. Every work here is a small-scale masterpiece and, throughout, this remarkable partnership is as of two artists playing as one” --Gramophone Magazine, June 2015

“The highlight is Saint-Saëns’s sonata, one of the very late group that also includes sonatas for oboe and bassoon, a marvellous work. There is light relief in miniatures by Bloch and Pierné, and Lisa Shklyaver blossoms in Milhaud’s famous Scaramouche suite in an arrangement possibly not by the composer that Immerseel has partly rewritten – so it’s more authentic than the original!” --The Observer, 26th April 2015 ***

Jos Van Immerseel (piano) & Lisa Shklyaver (clarinet)

'Musical love at first sight’, that is a good description of the meeting of Jos van Immerseel and Lisa Shklyaver. With her sweet tone and fine articulation, the young clarinettist effortlessly won the pianist over. No matter which repertoire they played, it clicked immediately.

The desire to come as close as possible to the sound aesthetic of composers at the time of the first performance of their works, along with the simple pleasure of the sound of period instruments, guide Jos van Immerseel in his approach.

For this recording, offering a panorama of French music for clarinet and piano from the early 20th century, Jos van Immerseel has chosen a Bechstein piano of 1870, and Lisa Schklyaver, a Dolnet Lefevre & Pigis clarinet from 1930.

The recording is doubly precious in that it proposes both the view of one of the finest performers of French music on a variety of remarkable works as well as, in a way, the sonority and poetry of an era.

2015 marks Jos van Immerseel’s 70th birthday, one of Belgium’s most acclaimed musicians. Later in 2015 Jos van Immerseel and Anima Eterna will record and release an album of Janacek and Dvorak.