This disc is an exploration of abstract clarinet and piano music from the 20th Century. The six items on this programme include three sonatas, one sonatine, a set of pieces which taken together closely resemble a sonata, and another set inspired by the latter. All six might be considered to be rather off the beaten recital-programme path and all six convey something of their national origins. Certainly all have retained particular currency in their composers’ respective countries.

Born in 1976 in Tenerife, Cristo Barrios took a first class degree in clarinet at the Tenerife Conservatory followed by a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in 1999. In 2000 he went on to win the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship, held at St John’s Smith Square. He has won numerous other competitions and prizes throughout Europe.

As a recitalist and chamber musician he is much in demand and has performed in Europe and America. He is a keen recitalist and chamber musician with an intense particular interest in the field of contemporary music. He has premiered many works, including pieces by Blai Soler, Javier Ruiz, Tom Johnson, Juan Manuel Ruiz, Juan Manuel Marrero, Raquel Cristobal, Gustavo Trujillo, Gustavo Díaz Jerez and Manuel Bonino, amongst others.

Clinton Cormany was born in the USA. He has distinguished himself as an accompanist to many singers and instrumentalists in recitals all over the United States and Europe. His principal teachers were the late Leonard Hokanson at the Indiana University School of Music and Malcolm Martineau at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Clinton’s concert work has included several large-scale projects involving his peers. His performances have been broadcast by Spanish National Radio, BBC Radio 3, and American PBS. Recital work has taken him to Sweden and Austria, and he has made several extended tours of Spain with the clarinettist Cristo Barrios.