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Mark Simpson - commissions for clarinet & basset clarinet

Gary Carpenter, Kenneth Hesketh, Gavin Higgins, Emily Howard, David Horne, Patrick Nunn, Stephen Pratt, Mark Simpson, Mark-Anthony Turnage

Mark Simpson, Bb clarinet & basset-clarinet; Ian Buckle, piano

NMC : 139

It is repertoire which primarily decides which of the many discs received will get reviewed; this one scores by that criterion...

This young clarinettist was able to develop relationships with a number of composers through winning BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2006.His programme represents the culmination of five years of actively working with and commissioning composers, one strand of it to develop a contemporary repertoire for the basset clarinet.

Simpson performs on B flat clarinet as well as the rarely heard Basset horn (or Basset clarinet) on which he'd played the Mozart concerto.

He presents here lively, youthful music of our time, expertly performed and recorded, and with good notes on each work, mainly written by Simpson himself.

Very much what NMC is about; recommended.

Peter Grahame Woolf