Starting with a dazzling account of Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Second Concerto, the one written for Benny Goodman, this is not just a tribute to the great polymath among clarinettists but a most attractive collection of music that is middle-of-the-road in the best sense, echoing the achievement of Goodman himself in crossing barriers. Not everything was composed for him – the Stravinsky for example was written for Woody Herman – but this is music which suited his style, as it does that of Wolfgang Meyer, even more than that of his celebrated sister, Sabine.
One notes that only one of the longer works, the Ebony Concerto, and one of the shorter ones, the Paganini Caprice in jazzed-up form, feature Sabine Meyer, though four of the big band arrangements feature them both in duet. It is not hard to deduce that the brother is the prime mover behind this whole programme, when in his flamboyant way he plays with an extra freedom and panache compared with his sister. Where he revels in the extrovert show of such a movement as the pre-Goodman Rag which closes the Arnold Concerto, Sabine Meyer is more reticent.
She gives a slightly understated performance of the Ebony Concerto, characteristically subtle in phrasing and tonal shading but not quite sharp enough to bring out the full point of Stravinsky’s angular cross-rhythms. It remains a fine performance, crisply accompanied by the Bamberg Symphony Big Band under Metzmacher. Even so, Wolfgang Meyer and the Bambergers play at higher voltage and with sharper attack whether in the Arnold, the Copland or the Bernstein.
In the big band arrangements, duetting alongside her brother, Sabine then loses all inhibitions, equally bringing out the fun in these jazz arrangements. And what other orchestra, I wonder, is constituted formally in big band formation, as the Bambergers appear to be here, playing with flair. Though it is a pity that Bartok’s Contrasts – written for Szigeti as well as Benny Goodman – is not also included, this makes an excellent, generous mixture, not only well-played but well-recorded too.'