The Finzi Clarinet Concerto has been particularly lucky on CD, with a whole series of fine versions issued, including those above. Yet Emma Johnson, spontaneous in her expressiveness, brings an extra freedom and often an extra warmth to make this in many ways the most winning of all. Finzi's sinuous melodies for the solo instrument are made to sound as though the soloist is improvising them, and with extreme daring she uses the widest possible dynamic range down to a whispered pianissimo that might be inaudible in a concert-hall. Thea King (Hyperion) and Michael Collins (Virgin) are both less free in their rubato, but no one could accuse Johnson of being self-indulgent or mannered. The comparisons in the Allegro giocoso finale are also fascinating, when Thea King at a slightly slower speed than either Johnson or Collins finds a more relaxed manner for the haunting main theme with its trotting rhythms. Johnson in recompense at her brisker speed finds a lighter, sharper style, more clearly reflecting the marking giocoso, with little ornamental acciaccaturas crisply pointed.
Sir Charles Groves and the RPO match their soloist in playing that sounds as though they too know this music well and love it. That is also true of the Stanford Concerto, less ambitious in scale, and Emma Johnson is again even freer and more fluent than Thea King. I love the way that she can edge in to a theme with extreme gentleness. So her first entry in the slow movement, taxingly high, seems to emerge ethereally from nowhere, while Thea King's firmer, sharper attack is less poetic. In the finale too King is strong and forthright, but Johnson is warmer and more personal with her cheekily witty treatment of the first solo.
It is an obvious advantage that ASV provide two substantial fill-ups in shorter pieces by the same composers, though it is conceivable that Hyperion might recouple what was one of its early CD issues, adding more material by Finzi and Stanford already recorded by the same soloist. With Malcolm Martineau a helpful, relatively unassertive accompanist, Emma Johnson characterizes each of the shorter pieces very vividly indeed, using extreme tonal contrasts. I had never fully appreciated what gems the Finzi set in particular contains, with the languorously beautiful ''Romance''—second of the five—sounding like a variation on the spiritual, Deep River, and the final ''Fughetta'' a breezy and witty hornpipe. This is another of Emma Johnson's recordings for ASV which consistently conveys her own joy in the music.'