Dean is a brilliant clarinettist (and artistic director of the Australian National Academy of Music) who was a soloist with the Southern Sinfonia in recent years. He plays works by Brahms and Schumann, accompanied by Emmerson, the pair being two of Australia's most sensitive and poetic musicians. Dean is noted for purity and beauty of tone on the wind instrument, so beautifully recorded here, while not too closely miked for breathing sounds to distract. Brahms' Sonatas No.1 and No.2 are late works tinged with melancholic acceptance or anger against the march of time, as well as tender memories. Three brief transcriptions of Lieder songs by Brahms are delights and Drei Fantasiestücke (Three Fantasy Pieces) by Schumann, Brahms' great friend, conclude this masterful recital.
Highlight: Brahms' emotional complexity.
Lis, Polish-born, living in Auckland, is the winner of prizes and scholarships as a talented flautist. Accompanied by Watkins (well known on keyboard in the New Zealand Trio), she presents a diverse programme of eight works by Polish or New Zealand composers. Anthony Ritchie's lively Polish Dances (2010), written for this disc, has one of its three dances based on a Chopin Mazurka. Jack Body contributes an energetic 4 Pieces from "Rainforest",and Gao Ping, of Christchurch, Sonatine: Dialogue between Wind and Snow. Michael Williams' When We Fell uses tragic World War 2 references, enhanced by Lis also reciting, and sobs. Polish composer Roxanna Panufnik's The Conversation of Prayer uses delayed electronic flute echoes effectively.
Fast gallop: Michal Rosiak's Melbourne Cup, brisk 100sec piccolo and drum sprint.
