Michael Collins & Friends

British clarinettist Michael Collins brings his four-concert residence to a close with works by Reinecke, Stanford and Brahms.

Reinecke’s Introduction and Allegro appassionato shows a masterful blending of two instruments. Neither one can be heard to dominate, as they work together towards a dramatic conclusion.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford spent most of his career in England, but his Irish roots show through in works such as the ‘Irish’ symphony, or this Clarinet Sonata, whose middle movement takes the Gaelic word ‘Caoine’ as its title, meaning lament.

Brahms’ own Clarinet Sonata – the first in F minor – was the work which brought him out of an early retirement, inspired as he was to write for the virtuosic clarinet player Richard Mühlfeld. The instrument dominates this sonata, and shows its full range, across four movements of dramatic late-Romantic music.