DCD34280

Origines & départs: French music for clarinet and piano

GLOBAL RELEASE DATE: 25 FEBRUARY 2021

Born in the Canary Islands and resident for many years in Scotland, clarinettist Maximiliano Martín follows up his Delphian solo debut – a collection of concertante works recorded with the symphony orchestra of his native Tenerife – with a programme for clarinet and piano that similarly explores the ways in which music can express national character as well as tracking more personal life journeys.

Maxi’s infectious personality is reflected in this deeply personal album, a joyous exploration of French repertoire (from the tenderness of Saint-Saëns’s clarinet sonata to the playfulness of Poulenc’s) that is supplemented by recent works from the two places he calls home: exquisite miniatures from the Scottish composer Eddie McGuire and the Tenerife-born Gustavo Trujillo.

'These performances are strong - at times strikingly intense - occasionally large in gesture and scale. It's an approach particularly well suited to the Poulenc Sonata, where anger and grief nag at the opening flourishes, and very much colour the subsequent Allegro before the tres calme central section offers temporary consolation. The Romanza is deeply felt and extraordinarily melancholy: the final movement, for all its bouant virtuosity, doesn't quite sweep the pervailing sadness away'

"This soloist positively luxuriates in the sounds he makes, exerting a storyteller’s grip on the listener’s ear. Even the world-weary Arthur Honegger sounds like a crisp breath of January air. The unseasonal cherry in the fruitbowl is an elegiac waltz by one Eddie McGuire, a vista of austere Scottish hills in the lengthening afternoon. You won’t want to miss it"

★ ★ ★ ★

"Maximiliano Martín has turned to French repertoire for his second recording with Delphian, which explores how music can have both a national character, while also displaying individual composers’ musical personalities ... The whole represents a fascinating, constantly-shifting journey for the keenly engaged listener, with its constants being Martín’s rich-toned, silkily mellifluous delivery, and the sensitive partnering from Mitchell"

'Maximiliano Martin has been based in Scotland for years and here touches base with the two places he calls home ... [he makes] beautiful connections combined with fine clarinet playing'

"Martin's considerable technique is always at the service of the music and never the other way round ... The finale really is a tour de force and gives Martin ample opportunity to display his considerable expertise ... Martin brings both virtuosity and sensitivity. Mention must be made of the pianist Scott Mitchell who accompanies in an exemplary manner, never overbearing nor too reticent"


Release Date: 25 February 2022
Catalogue No: DCD34280
Total playing time: 1:08:25
Recorded on 24 & 25 June 2021 in Perth Concert Hall
Producer/Editor: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Design: John Christ
Booklet editor: Henry Howard
Cover photography: Jen Owens
Session photography: foxbrushfilms.com
Singing In Secret: Clandestine Catholic Music by William Byrd CD Delphian Records

PREVIEW

Saint-Saens:Clarinet Sonata in E-flat major - ii. allegro animato

Album Booklet

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