Though by no means prolific in the number of releases Redcliffe have nevertheless provided a much-needed service for some less-recorded composers such as Priaulx Rainer, Dame Elisabeth Lutyens, Alan Bush, Alan Rawsthorne and Francis Routh. In this release two clarinet works – a quartet by Rawsthorne and a quintet by Routh – receive first recordings, whilst the Clarinet Quintet by Arthur Bliss joins just one other version in the catalogue. Quite why the Bliss Quintet should have received only two recordings in recent years is something of a mystery to me, as the quality of this lovely, rhapsodic work is extremely high indeed. The intricately spun melodies of the first movement are here beautifully rendered by Nicholas Cox and his colleagues, and the elegiac slow movement is most movingly delivered too.
Alan Rawsthorne’s most astringent Clarinet Quartet of 1946 strikes me as very fine, and a worthwhile discovery also. Although it displays a clear debt to Viennese serialism its lyrical qualities are exceptionally strong and it is by no means an unapproachable piece. Francis Routh’s five-movement Clarinet Quintet was composed in 1994, but in a stylistic sense could easily be contemporary with, or even earlier than, the Rawsthorne. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant and finely crafted work which here receives a spirited reading from its dedicatee, Nicholas Cox. The recorded sound is very natural indeed.'