Various Artists - 1 2 3 11 (CD)

Clarinettist Barnaby Robson performs a rich program of 20th-century and contemporary music for clarinet and piano, including world-premiere recordings. The release opens with Barnaby Robson's collaboration with BAFTA-winning sound designer Martin Cantwell: a recording of Steve Reich's intricate New York Counterpoint, which involves eight pre-recorded clarinet lines (the forces of which are referenced in the album's title.) Herbert Howells is celebrated for his choral music but his instrumental works are less famous; with pianist Fiona Harris, Robson performs the 1946 version of Howells's Clarinet Sonata, never recorded before. Three further world-premiere recordings follow: Robson's arrangement for clarinet, viola and piano of George Fenton's Snow Leopard - music originally composed for the BBC's Planet Earth - for which Robson is joined by Simon Chamberlain and Rebecca Chambers; Graham Fitkin's mercurial Cusp for solo clarinet; and the witty Red Herring Blues for clarinet and piano by baritone-composer Roderick Williams. The recording is rounded off with two 20th-century French works: Poulenc's Sonata for two clarinets (Robson has recorded both parts) and Debussy's dazzling Première Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano.