Sonatina - Martinu
Impromptu in A flat Op 90 No 4 - Schubert
Apreggione Sonata in
A minor - Schubert, trans Guyot
Three Fantasiestucke Op 73 - Schumann
Un reflet dans le vent - Messiaen
L'Abime des Oiseaux - Messiaen
Sonata - Poulenc
This Belfast Music Society recital brought together two young Frenchmen, Romain Guyot, who has been principal clarinettist of the European Youth Orchestra, and Philippe Cassard, who won the first GPA Dublin International Piano Competition in 1988. Cassard was beautifully poised in the Schubert Impromptu, and showed a virtuoso technique in the Messiaen Un reflet dans le vent, the last of the eight Preludes from 1929. Perhaps the highlight of the programme was Guyot's mesmeric playing of L'Abime des oiseaux, the solo clarinet solo from Quatuor pour la fin du temps, in which he showed a huge dynamic range. Both soloists worked well together in the duet items. The sinuous writing in the Schubert sonata, written for the apreggione, a short-lived cross between the cello and the guitar, transferred effectively on the clarinet.
