Michael Collins here follows up “The Virtuoso Clarinet” (12/10), his first disc as an exclusive Chandos artist, with this contrasted counterpart, “The Lyrical Clarinet”. I first heard Collins when he was only 16 and it was already clear then that here was a master in the making, so imaginative was everything he played.

This disc, in all the varied items, again demonstrates the magnetism and sheer beauty of his playing, whatever the idiom. The Duo by Norbert Burgmüller – not to be confused with his brother Friedrich, composer of piano studies, or his father, a one-time teacher of Beethoven – demonstrates that here was a genius, sometimes described as the “Schubert of the Rhine”, whose life was tragically cut short in his mid-twenties. It makes a delightful opening item.

Finzi’s Five Bagatelles, first given in 1943 at a National Gallery concert, are typical of the composer in their sharply contrasting yet ever-imaginative sequence, beautifully brought out by Collins as well as by his accompanist, Michael McHale. The Baermann Adagio was arranged from his Clarinet Quintet, a dreamily songful piece, leading to the Saint-Saëns Sonata, one of his very last works, written in the year he died, 1921, yet showing all the exuberance of music by a young composer. It is a gift for Collins’s artistry, with the allegros wittily pointed and with the dashing finale rounded off with a reference back to the opening Allegretto.

The Arvo Pärt piece, arranged for clarinet by the composer himself, was inspired by reflections in mirrors. It marked the transformation of his idiom into a simple, direct style. The attractive suite by Paul Reade stems from music he wrote for television programmes entitled The Victorian Kitchen Garden, evocative pieces reflecting seasons and atmospheres, while Poulenc’s Sonata brings the most striking music of all. Like the Saint-Saëns, it was a very late piece. Commissioned by Benny Goodman, it has relatively few jazz references but remains one of Poulenc’s most masterly chamber works, making a fitting close to a fine recital, vividly recorded to match the inspiration of the playing.