It is records like this that almost lead a reviewer to a dereliction of his critical responsibilities and tempt him merely to sit back and enjoy it. Here we have an admirably representative programme of clarinet music by French composers—a genre at which they have traditionally excelled—written over a period of about 40 years, played by two splendid young artists (both of whom have carried off various honours) whose performances are well integrated and balanced and have been recorded with first-class fidelity. In style the works range from neo-classicism (Saint-Saens) via lyricism (Chausson in his student days), impressionism (Debussy), abrasive polytonality (the Milhaud Sonatina, though his 30 years later Duo concertant is far more amiable and diatonic) and plangency (Poulenc) to the angular and finally Stravinskian-jazzy Honegger.
There is an alert spontaneity about the playing, sensitive gradation of dynamics, considerable virtuosity and, from Meyer, tone that is always beautiful, from the mellow chalumeau register (e.g. the Lento of the Saint-Saens) to the un-squeaky highest notes (a top A in the Milhaud Duo). There is real character too—a thoroughly impish scherzo of the Saint-Saens (with rapid staccato arpeggios), a beautifully atmospheric reveusement lent in the Debussy Rapsodie, and in the Poulenc Sonata a passionately elegiac outburst at the beginning and a finale that fully lives up to its direction con fuoco. Have I no reservations at all, then? Yes, the vacillations of tempo in the initial Vif of Milhaud's Duo concertant give it a coy flavour which to me sounds out of place, and the extremely free rubatos and (unmarked) changes of speed in the first two movements of the Poulenc seem unwarranted. But that apart, I most warmly recommend this disc.'