Klarinet Archive - Posting 000253.txt from 2003/08

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Tony=20Pay?= <tony_pay@-----.uk>
Subj: [kl] Arnold Sonatina
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 13:42:19 -0400

--- Anne Lenoir <AnneLenoir@-----.net> wrote:

> By the way, Tony, I have been meaning to ask you a question but keep
> forgetting. When I was in high school, about 15 years old (in 1961), I
> learned the Malcolm Arnold Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano. I loved the
> piece and had forgotten that I knew the piece until it was mentioned
> recently on the List. Lately our adult wind ensemble has been playing
> some works of Malcolm Arnold, and I love his compositions.
> Anyhow, I ordered the Malcolm Arnold Sonatina (It cost me $24
> American bucks!) and enjoyed it as much as I did when I was a youngster,
> so much that I have selected it as a piece for some of my students to
> learn for Colorado Solo & Ensemble contest next spring.
> Tony, do you personally have any recommendations of a particular
> recording of this piece? Have you recorded it? I would love to purchase
> a recording of your performance of the Sonatina.

Hi Annie, sorry not to have replied sooner to this.

The answer, though, is that I haven't heard any recordings of the Sonatina, nor
have I made one myself. I think there is a recording by Michael Collins and
Ian Brown as part of a Nash Ensemble disc of Arnold's music, but though it's
probably excellent (Michael is a talented player) I can't vouch for it
directly.

I too played the piece at an early age. I remember that there used to be a
sort of 'variety show' competition called 'Top Town' on television. (The idea
was that different towns in England each contributed an 'act' -- a song, a
couple of magic tricks, a short bit of stand-up comedy, and so on -- and the
best ones competed in a television playoff.) A schoolpal and I entered the
last movement of the Sonatina to compete to be the 'Leyton' contribution.

The compere was completely gobsmacked. "Well, if you like that sort of
thing....that's the sort of thing that you like!" was all he could come up
with. We didn't get anywhere in the competition.

I do often play the second movement as an encore, and in fact did so here in
Siena after my recital a couple of days ago.

Arnold is of course quite uncategorisable as a composer. Though I haven't
heard it yet, I hear that a long-lost wind quintet has reappeared, proving to
be a sombre and serious work, quite unlike the light-hearted Sea Shanties we
all know. And of course he's always been a highly colourful character.

A friend of mine, thinking to do Arnold a favour when he was Manager of the
Philharmonia Orchestra, suggested that he might like to part-subsidise a
concert of his music with some of the money he'd made writing for film.

Arnold took offence, and my friend got thrown down the stairs of the Savage
Club for his pains.

Tony

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