It seems no time at all since I reviewed the performance of Malcolm Arnold's Clarinet Sonatina by Nicholas Carpenter and David McArthur (Herald) and praised their playing for bringing out ''all its gutsiness, bite, charm and tenderness''. Now here's another performance of the same work, and another clarinet recital to enjoy for the range of music offered although one other work is duplicated Dunhili's Phantasy Suite. Einar Johannesson is Icelandic by birth, but also studied with Bernard Walton and John McGaw at the Royal College of Music in London, while Philip Jenkins is a Royal Academy of Music alumnus who also taught there from 1974–89. I like the fluent and assured playing of both these artists who clearly understand the (to some extent) varying, but always British-sounding, idioms of these works and play convincingly as a team. I'm less happy, however, about the recording, which is too close and boomy for my liking, although one's ears fairly soon become more accustomed to the sound.
I need not go into detail about every performance here: suffice it to say that the interpretative grasp is firm. If I have a further reservation about the disc, it is that compared with the other disc mentioned above, the music has more Anglo-Saxon blandness, and for that reason I prefer the Carpenter/McArthur recital. I am thinking here not least of the Howard Ferguson pieces, which are hardly strong on personality although the last is a jolly Irish jig. I feel rather similarly about Richard Stoker's Sonatina (a very early work by a composer born in 1938), which has a finale that is too short at a mere 50 seconds, although otherwise it offers the craftsmanship and taste that we expect from a pupil of Lennox Berkeley. Stanford's Sonata is embarrassingly indebted to the composer's hero Brahms, but at least the model is good. As with the other disc, the Arnold Sonatina is more vital music and accordingly yields the best playing.'