Born in 1927, Dankworth was the first student at the Royal Academy of Music to study both clarinet and saxophone, a crossover path that he carried over into a composition career that sought to dissolve stylistic barriers between classical and jazz. The opening work on the recital, Suite for Emma (1987), is a collection of five character pieces that as Dankworth writes, consists not of classical or jazz, but rather “music I would like to hear Emma Johnson play.” The music is vintage British neo-romanticism, much like the tonal ambience heard in film and television—picturesque, catchy, and pleasing to the ear, but nothing profound or memorable. Likewise, the closing work, Dankworth’s Picture of Jeannie is simply a short fantasy on the famous Stephen Foster song, ‘Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair’.

In the Bernstein sonata, the Copland sonata (arranged from the 1943 violin sonata), and Copland’s early Nocturne—a 1926 character piece for violin and piano that the composer 50 years later republished for clarinet and piano—they bring their full artistic commitment to bear. This release, like many of her other recordings, may appeal to a wide audience.

Chamber music isn’t what one would think of when the name of Aaron Copland is mentioned…it is odd that Copland’s Violin Sonata doesn’t get played more often than it does. It is a lovely, lyrical, work, full of his open air style, with lots of rhythmic drive, and the kind of laid-back Americana we find in many of his works. Nearly 40 years after writing the piece, Copland reworked it for clarinet and piano and it makes a very fine Clarinet Sonata! Nowhere is one conscious of the fact that this is not original clarinet music—it simply falls so easily on the wind instrument. There is a lot of long breathed melody in this work and this is exactly the kind of thing which works so well on the clarinet, and that is one of the reasons why this version of the work is such a winner. Emma Johnson and John Lenehan realise the full stature of this work and give it a truly inspiring performance, it’s worth the price of the disk for this performance alone. The little Nocturne was written in the 1920s as a companion piece to a Ukelele Serenade for violin and piano. Like the Violin Sonata, with its long melodies and distinctly bluesy sound, this makes perfect clarinet music. Johnson relishes the long lines really sings as if her man had done gone and left her.

… the playing is superb throughout—how could it not be when two such exciting and talented young players are at work [?]