When he reviewed Richard Stoltmman's RCA coupling of the two clarinet sonatas last September JM-C came down firmly in favour of Gervase de Peyer's performances with Gwenneth Pryor on Chandos. There is certainly much to admire in De Peyer's beautiful tone quality and his acutely sensitive response to the music's gently shifting moods. But the new Amon Ra release raises new debating points. An orchestra of original instruments is incapable of playing Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony with the range of expression and the inflections found in performances by Pfitzner and Furtwangler. In the same way it would be very hard for Alan Hacker and Richard Burnett, using instruments of Brahms's own day, to play in the highly expressive, caressing style favoured by De Peyer and Pryor. So I merely pose the question as to whether the Chandos performances can really be true to Brahms's original conception of the music. I must admit that I enjoyed Stoltmman and Richard Goode's objective, straightforward response rather more than JM-C. Their style is in many ways akin to that of Hacker and Burnett. Hacker plays on a similar instrument to that used by Richard Muhlfeld, for whom Brahms wrote his late clarinet works, and Burnett has chosen an 1866 Erard.
The tone quality of Burnett's early piano is of course less seductive than a modern instrument but you soon get used to that, and there are unmistakable advantages in increased clarity and a better balance between the two instruments. I was surprised at first by the quite vigorous treatment given to the First Sonata's opening movement. But then it is marked Allegro appassionato. In fact tempos throughout the Hacker/Burnett performances tend to be faster than those of De Peyer and Stoltzman, and they sound just right on the instruments concemed. The comparatively cool, light sound of Hacker's period clarinet is very attractive, and he plays with great skill and artistry. I don't think this is a case where I should make a choice between De Peyer/Pryor and Hacker/Burnett, since one is not comparing like with like. But I hope I have given sufficient guidance for readers to make their own choice.
One point in the new disc's favour, however, is the presence of a third work in the shape of the Clarinet Trio. Here Jennifer Ward-Clarke plays on what is described as a ''modern'' 1729 cello with mainly gut strings. Again there is a more direct, urgent quality in the performance than you usually hear, with clear textures and rhythms: there is something of a dance-like quality in the third movement, for instance, which you don't often hear. All this is captured in very good sound.'