The Lyrical Clarinet, Vol. 3 Michael Collins & Michael McHale

• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Suite bergamasque, L. 75:
• 1 Suite bergamasque, L. 75: III. Clair de lune (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 04:22
• Fritz Kreisler (1875 - 1962): 3 Old Viennese Dances:
• 2 3 Old Viennese Dances: No. 2, Liebesleid (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 03:13
• Philippe Gaubert (1879 - 1941):
• 3 Fantaisie in F Major 07:29
• Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759 - 1824):
• 4 Sicilienne in E-Flat Major (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 02:30
• Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924):
• 5 Sicilienne in G Minor, Op. 78 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 03:19
• Fritz Kreisler:
• 6 3 Old Viennese Dances: No. 3, Schön Rosmarin (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 01:56
• Gabriel Fauré:
• 7 Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 03:11
• Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809 - 1847): Lied ohne Worte, Op. 38:
• 8 Lied ohne Worte, Op. 38: No. 2, Allegro non troppo, MWV U 115 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 02:21
• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856):
• 9 Träumerei, Op. 15 No. 7 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 02:14
• Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886): Liebesträume, S. 541:
• 10 Liebesträume, S. 541: No. 3, Oh Lieb, so lang du lieben kannst (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 04:33
• Claude Debussy: Preludes, Book 1, L. 117:
• 11 Preludes, Book 1, L. 117: No. 8, La fille aux cheveux de lin (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 02:22
• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897):
• 12 Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G Minor, WoO 1 No. 1 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 03:05
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921): The Carnival of the Animals, R. 125:
• 13 The Carnival of the Animals, R. 125: XIII. Le cygne (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano) 02:42
• César Franck (1822 - 1890): Violin Sonata in A Major, FWV 8 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano):
• 14 Violin Sonata in A Major, FWV 8 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano): I. Allegretto ben moderato 05:39
• 15 Violin Sonata in A Major, FWV 8 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano): II. Allegro 07:51
• 16 Violin Sonata in A Major, FWV 8 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano): III. Recitativo-Fantasia. Ben moderato 07:08
• 17 Violin Sonata in A Major, FWV 8 (Arr. for Clarinet & Piano): IV. Allegretto poco mosso 06:03
• Total Runtime 01:09:58

Info for The Lyrical Clarinet, Vol. 3

Michael Collins MBE is one of the most complete musicians of his generation. Continuing his distinguished career as a soloist, he has in recent years also become highly regarded as a conductor and in 2010 took up the position as Principal Conductor of City of London Sinfonia; he works with leading orchestras around the world both as a soloist and as a conductor.

Committed for many years to expanding the repertoire of the clarinet, he has premiered works by some of today’s most highly regarded composers, including John Adams, Elliott Carter, Brett Dean, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. In addition to commissioning and supporting new compositions, he is also a champion of well-crafted arrangements for the clarinet of works originally for other instruments. It is this area of his work that is so vividly demonstrated in the Chandos series The Lyrical Clarinet, of which this is the third volume. Most of the arrangements on this album were made by the pianist Michael McHale, who accompanies Michael Collins on the recording.

Michael Collins, clarinet
Michael McHale, piano

Michael Collins
is one of the most complete musicians of his generation. With a continuing, distinguished career as a soloist, he has in recent years also become highly regarded as a conductor and in 2010 took the position of Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia. Recent guest conducting and play-directing highlights have included engagements with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Ulster Orchestra, and the HPAC Orchestra in Kyoto, Japan.

This season Michael will also conduct and perform wth the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a studio concert and work with the Kymi Sinfonietta and Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra for play-direct programmes. He also and makes his debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, playing and directing a programme of Mozart, Weber and Rossini. As a soloist, he will work with the Charlotte Symphony and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Future plans include OSESP Sao Paulo, as well as a return to the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Michael Collins has been committed to expanding the repertoire of the clarinet for many years. He has given premières of works such as John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons, Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto - for which he won a Gramophone award for his recording on Deutsche Grammophon - Brett Dean’s Ariel’s Music and Turnage’s Riffs and Refrains, which was commissioned by the Hallé Orchestra. Collins has gone on to perform Turnage’s work with the Residentie Orkest, Royal Flanders and Helsinki Philharmonics, as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Collins has received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award in 2007 in recognition of his pivotal role in premièring repertoire by some of today’s most highly regarded composers.

In great demand as a chamber musician, Collins performs regularly with the Borodin and Takács quartets, András Schiff, Martha Argerich, Stephen Hough, Mikhail Pletnev, Lars Vogt, Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis. His ensemble, London Winds, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2013 and the group maintains a busy diary with high calibre engagements such as the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival, Edinburgh Festival, City of London Festival, Cheltenham International Festival and Bath Mozartfest. He has a regular relationship with the Wigmore Hall and was one of their Artists in Residence in 2015/16, which includes concerts with London Winds and Christine Rice, Ailish Tynan and with the Borodin Quartet – with whom he will also work at the Cite de la Musique in Paris. Collins is also Artistic Director of the Liberation International Music Festival in Jersey.

Michael Collins records exclusively for Chandos and has covered a wide range of repertoire in his prolific recording career, which also includes releases on Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI and Sony. Recent releases include a disc of British Clarinet Concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra which features Collins as soloist and conductor, as well as a disc of Brahms and Reinicke Clarinet Sonatas with pianist Michael McHale. Collins’s 50th Birthday was celebrated with a Chandos release of Weber Concertos conducted and performed by himself with the City of London Sinfonia. He has also recorded concertos by Corigliano, Adams, Carter, as well as Spohr, Copland and of course Mozart. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2015, Michael Collins was awarded an MBE for his services to music. He plays exclusively on Yamaha clarinets.

Booklet for The Lyrical Clarinet, Vol. 3