High standards maintained

Excellent and unusual is the territory for Perth Concert Hall’s series of lunchtime concerts, writes Ian Hunter. Monday’s by Maximilliano Martín, principal clarinet for the SCO, and friends Emily Mitchell, soprano, and Julian Milford, piano happily continued this, writes a music critic.

All three artists began with Spohr’s Six German Songs. Unusually they feature a clarinet obligato. All are melodious and charming if perhaps too nice. The virtuoso clarinet gets any drama going imitating a bird, rocking the cradle in a lullaby and finally with folkish swing saying look around and enjoy life.

Saint-Saëns’ pleasant Clarinet Sonata was the centerpiece. The Allegretto showed Maximiliano Martín with a finely lyrical line, then more virtuoso. The Scherzo playfully put the clarinet through its paces. The chalumeau then plaintive high registers characterized the Lento and the moto perpetuo Finale required liquid runs and fine breath control before returning to the Allegretto’s dreamy lyricism.

Emily Mitchell returned for Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock. More a dramatic scena than a simple song after the clarinet’s opener, Emily Mitchell had a tune with a radiant yodel to show the Shepherd’s high in the mountains, then in different rhythm a sad voice lamented his lover’s absence, then cabaletta-like, a lively section about the joys of coming Spring. The audience responded with extensive applause.