Romantic Fantasies for Clarinet and Piano

The Fantasy (Phantasie, Fantasia, or Fancy) is a form that dates back several centuries. In Elizabethan England, composers were fond of the genre and it made a comeback at the height of romanticism. In the 20th Century the British industrialist Walter William Cobbett instituted an annual competition encouraging British composers to resurrect the ancient form, but with certain modifications. The most popular and enduring work from the century just past-though in no way connected with the Cobbett competition--was Vaughan Williams\'s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.

Here we have several examples of Fantasy Pieces by 19th and early 20th Century composers, most either German or Scandinavian. The best known is the Opus 73 by Schumann: well-constructed and filled with both lyricism and passion. The less familiar companion works of Niels Gade and August Winding (1835-99) follow the same mold: brief but excellently crafted collections of miniatures that contain much fine music and expertly exploit both the lyrical and technical capabilities of the clarinet. Both the Nielsen and Gaubert are single-movement works, but they are built in such a way that each composer\'s fancy is wholly satisfied.

The playing here is first-class, leaving nothing to be desired, and the repertoire is appealing.