Classical review: Sophie Creaner (clarinet)/ Gabriela Mayer (piano)

Crawford Gallery, Cork

The third of these six Summer Lunchtime Concerts introduced a young lady who seems destined for a stellar career. Some aspiring professionals make an indelible impression when one first hears them. Sophie Creaner is one of those. Not only does she have a captivating, charming platform presence — she also seems to have all the attributes (technical, musical, awareness of colour, dynamic contrasts, and rhythmic subtlety) of a great artist. She had the perfect partner in Gabriella Mayer, a superb pianist whose musical understanding complemented her own musicianship.

Weber’s Grand Duo Concertante (a sonata in all but name) needs players whose technical and musical gifts are equally matched. All of Weber’s musical ideas are equally shared between the two instruments. The rapport between Creaner and Mayer was total.

The Pastorale for clarinet and piano, written for his brother by Arthur Bliss in 1916, was a delightful miniature between the two major works on the programme. Their performance of this wonderfully atmospheric piece was most sensitive.

What a treat it was to hear Poulenc’s final masterpiece, his Sonata for Clarinet and piano, so thoroughly understood. Typically, Poulenc marked the first movement Allegro tristamente, a seeming oxymoron, yet they succeeded admirably in capturing the bittersweet nature of this tuneful, but unsingable, music. Likewise, they got right into the soul of the almost operatic slow movement and brought us into what sounded like a mad rush for a train in the exciting, almost filmic Tres animé finale.