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American Record Guide

Founded in 1973, Gemini has been a longtime force in British chamber music, contrasting standard and contemporary repertoire and incorporating elements of dance, theater, and improvisation. In 1985, noted experimental clarinetist and administrator Ian Mitchell took over as director; and in each release, he continues to sharpen Gemini’s reputation as a group of eclectic and open-minded musicians with a fondness for new compositions.

Most of the music is the work of living composers of the British Isles: Cheryl Frances-Hoad and her ‘How to Win An Election’ (2017) for mezzo-soprano and bass clarinet; Sadie Harrison’s Owl of the Hazels (2005) for bass clarinet and piano; Jonathan Harvey’s Riot (1993) for flute, bass clarinet, and piano; Helen Roe’s Birds, Earth, Sun, Sky, and Water (2017) for mezzo-soprano and bass clarinet; Dave Smith’s Aragonesca (1987) for violin, cello, bass clarinet, and saxophone; Huw Watkins’s ‘Double’ (2010) for cello, bass clarinet, and piano; and John White’s Concertino for Bass Clarinet and String Trio (1996).

The recital opens with two outsiders: American clarinetist-composer William O. Smith’s Jazz Set (2012) for two bass clarinets, and early 20th Century British composer Edwin York Bowen’s (1884-1961) single-movement Phantasy Quintet (1932) for bass clarinet and string quartet—part of the late romantic English nationalism that flowered in the inter¬war period.
The overall presentation is solid, yet individual components are mixed. Traditional and idiomatic selections are well done—the Bowen is beautifully played, and the White and the Smith are clean and rhythmic. The ultramodernist pieces, such as the Harrison and the Harvey, seem too gnarly for the instruments; and the renditions, though earnest, are somewhat rough. In the Roe and the Frances-Hoad, Wells boasts a powerful and flexible voice, but the words are often difficult to understand. Is this a diction problem or poor text setting?