Undoubtedly the finest work here is the Oboe Sonata, a splendid piece, pastoral in feeling, which should be in every oboist's repertoire. The first movement is delectably grazioso, the second has a gentle, chorale-like tune which immediately lodges in the memory and is then charmingly embroidered by the oboe, while the finale, in waltz tempo, ends wistfully. A winner! And winningly played here by Nicholas Daniel and Julius Drake.
The single-movement Clarinet Sonata, which opens the programme, is altogether wilder, very much a fantasy-sonata, and Joy Farrell treats it with ardent abandon before lapsing into a more sombre thoughtfulness; with renewed energy the music climbs precipitously into the higher regions and then, as the temperature finally cools, produces a brief, dark soliloquy before the final dash into the home straight. It is a splendidly rhapsodic performance.
By contrast the solo Divertimento for flute (the excellent Kate Hill) is classical and restrained and very agreeable, with an opening fughetta followed by divisions on a ground, a Gavotte and Musette, and a chirpy final Gigue. The quite lovely Crepuscule for solo harp, written in 1955 for a Christmas Eve broadcast, is a gentle evocation of a cold, clear and frosty winter's night. The Flute Sonata also opens tranquilly. The writing has a certain French nostalgia but soon becomes restless and animated. A peaceful interlude precedes an ingenious fugue in which the flute manages to produce a piece of resourceful self-imitation before the piano entry.
The Sonata impromptu for violin and viola begins arrestingly, rather in the style of Bach, but the interplay between the instruments has a more agitated neurosis than Johann Sebastian would have thought feasible. The second movement is a Theme and Variations and Alwyn continues to interweave the two instruments almost as if they were one. This movement is in minuet tempo and the mood only lightens briefly to bring quiet melancholy, where each instrument has a musing Vaughan Williams-like solo before the Capriccio finale. This has a fantasy element but is not altogether lightweight.
Alwyn demonstrates in all these works a natural skill in part-writing and his ready flow of appealing invention. Writing about the premiere of the Oboe Sonata at the Royal Academy of Music in 1934, The Times's music critic saw the work as ''a true sonata, giving each instrument an equal share in the progress of the music''. All the performers here enjoy their share and so do we. The recording is first-class, a typically superior Chandos product.'