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Mozart, Schumann & Others: Clarinet Trios

Michael Collins (clarinet), Isabelle van Keulen (viola, violin), Michael McHale (piano), Wigmore Soloists

Mozart, Schumann & Others: Clarinet Trios
With peerless clarinet tone from Michael Collins, volatile viola phrasing from Isabelle van Keulen and brightfingered pianism from Michael McHale – three founding members of the recently formed...

Mozart, Schumann & Others: Clarinet Trios

Michael Collins (clarinet), Isabelle van Keulen (viola, violin), Michael McHale (piano), Wigmore Soloists

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With peerless clarinet tone from Michael Collins, volatile viola phrasing from Isabelle van Keulen and brightfingered pianism from Michael McHale – three founding members of the recently formed...

About

As core members of the ensemble Wigmore Soloists, Michael Collins, Isabelle van Keulen and Michael McHale present four works for clarinet trio composed over a period of some 130 years. Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio was long believed to have been composed during a game of bowling. The writing is reminiscent of a conversation between three friends in which contrasts are not excluded: we hear affection, divergences and even disagreements. This atmosphere of friendly, playful, and sometimes very intimate exchange also pervades Schumann's Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales). While it's spirited conviviality might give the impression that this work was the product of idyllic times, it was actually composed during Schumann's last full year of sanity before his final mental collapse in 1854. There is a similar atmosphere of warm intimacy in Max Bruch's Eight Pieces, written in 1910. Four of them are presented here, giving not a single hint of the approaching First World War. Based on a Russian folk tale, Stravinsky's stage work L'Histoire du Soldat may be less good-natured than the preceding works. But the music is wonderfully entertaining, borrowing from various genres, including jazz. The composer's trio version consist of five movements and has deservedly become his most frequently performed chamber composition.

Contents and tracklist

I. Andante
Track length5:50
II. Menuetto
Track length5:31
III. Allegretto
Track length8:29
I. Lebhaft, nicht zu schnell
Track length2:55
II. Lebhaft und sehr markirt
Track length3:13
III. Ruhiges Tempo, mit zartem Ausdruck
Track length4:06
IV. Lebhaft, sehr markirt
Track length4:27
No. 5. Rumänische Melodie
Track length5:17
No. 6. Nachtgesang
Track length5:45
No. 7. Allegro vivace, ma non troppo
Track length3:23
No. 8, Moderato
Track length4:56
I. Introduction. Marche du soldat
Track length1:33
II. Marche royale
Track length2:32
III. Petit concert
Track length2:48
IV. Trois danses. Tango - Valse - Ragtime
Track length6:03
V. Danse du diable
Track length1:27

Awards and reviews

February 2023

With peerless clarinet tone from Michael Collins, volatile viola phrasing from Isabelle van Keulen and brightfingered pianism from Michael McHale – three founding members of the recently formed Wigmore Soloists – the immaculate reading [of the Kegelstatt] here lacks perhaps only a touch of wistfulness in the more mysterious turns of the second movement trio.

February 2023

Michael Collins’s tone flows like oil, as Mozart himself might have said...The sequence of works is delectable and the performances delivered with all the care and sensitivity you could wish for.
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