Rory Boyle
Music for Clarinet
Delphian
ON his current journey of discovery through Delphian label releases, this reviewer finds that he should know more of the music of Rory Boyle. Both pianist James Willshire – who has already made an album of Boyle piano works for the label – and clarinettist Fraser Langton, who commissioned the newer pieces here, are well ahead of me on this one. The astonishingly virtuosic solo Burble was written for Langton when he was studying for his Masters at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under former RSNO principal John Cushing, the three-movement Dramatis Personae (Rogue/Shadow/Fool) dedicated to the duo in 2012, and Di Tre Re e io, which adds the viola of Rosalind Ventris, commissioned by Langton two years ago.
By contrast, both the opening Sonatina, another duo in three movements, and Four Bagatelles, also for clarinet and piano, date from 1979, the former dedicated to Boyle's own teacher, Lennox Berkeley. The comparison is fascinating, because the earlier works, although very different in style, are clearly the work of the same musical mind, particularly in the pursuit of all the capabilities of the wind instrument. It is not difficult to understand why Langton has been so assiduous in asking Boyle to write for him.
Keith Bruce
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