Michael Collins (clarinet), Michael McHale (piano) Chandos CHAN 10704***

The British works for clarinet and piano included here are by John Ireland, Charles Villiers Stanford, Arthur Bliss, Arnold Bax and Herbert Howells. Stanford, of course, was an Irishman, born in Dublin. Bax, an Englishman, seemed to have wished he was – he lived in Rathgar for a number of years, and indulged his Celtic side through writing stories, plays and poetry under the n om de plumeDermot O'Byrne. Stanford is the dominating presence. He was an important teacher, and numbered Ireland, Bliss and Howells among his pupils. His own well-crafted sonata of 1911 is infused with Brahmsian gestures. Collins and McHale make a strong case for it, as they do for all the music here, even if most of the pieces tend to rhapsodise in ways that causes a weakness of backbone. Howells's 1947 Sonata finds the best balance between lyricism and fibre. chandos.net