CLARINET CONCERTO op.329 (February 1984) Listen to this Work

Commissioned by: Thea King and the English Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation: 1.1.ca.0.2 - 2000 - strings
[Key to Abbreviations]
Duration: 23 mins
First Performance: Thea King, The English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Howard Blake, Queen Elizabeth Hall 30.5.1985,
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CD THEA KING /ECO/BLAKE/HYPERION A66215 85

 

CD Thea King/ECO/'My England' compilation Resonance CDRSB 505 

Movements

• 1: Recitativo-Allegro ritmico
  'Invocation'
  
• 2: Recitativo-Andante espressivo
  Ceremony
  
• 3: Vivace (intenso;molto ritmico)
  Round dance
  

Performances

26th March 1994	Michael Collins, Jonathan Butcher, Surrey Philharmonic, Dorking Halls
20th May 1990	Emma Johnson, Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, Brighton Festival
1st June 1988	Angela Malsbury, London Mozart Players conducted by Howard Shelley, Corn Exchange Cambridge
10th March 1987	Pascual Y Martinez, City of Palma Symphony Orchestra, Palma Auditorium
December 1985	Thea King, The English Chamber Orchestra, Valencia, Spain

Reviews

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Howard Blake is a versatile composer who may be better known for his marvellous film scores The Snowman and Granpa in which his gifts for colourful orchestration and memorable tunes are clearly evident. He nevertheless also composed a good deal of concert works including the superb choral-orchestral Benedictus and several concertos. Though the intent is overtly more serious, the music of the Clarinet Concerto of 1984 is still memorably tuneful, superbly scored and quite attractive. The Clarinet Concerto is in every respect a fine work that deserves wider currency, and Thea King’s advocacy should earn this fine piece many new friends, hopefully among clarinettists.

Hubert Culot, Helios, 9/2/2007

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... I liked its easy lyricism and its flow of self-motivating rhythmic figures strung across insistent tonal pedal notes or ostinati in the lower strings.

Michael John White, The Guardian, 1/6/1988

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Hyperion disk CDA 66215

....Howard Blake turns his unostentatious lyrical invention to the concert hall and produces a comparitively slight but endearing Clarinet Concerto which is played here with great sympathy by Thea King who commissioned the work. With its neo-classical feeling, it is improvisatory  and reflective in its basic style, but produces plenty of energy in the finale with its whiff of Walton...it is extremely vividly recorded on CD- there is almost a sense of over-presence; the state-of-the-art chrome cassette however seems ideal in all respects.

Edwar Greenfield, The New Penguin Guide to Compact Discs & cassettes, 1/4/1988

Related Works

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