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Ameican Record Guide

Scotland native Ian Scott is the Principal Clarinet of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Here he steps to the front of the orchestra with noted British conductor and arranger Robin White for a Russian-themed concert. The program includes four transcribed selections from Tchaikovksy’s chamber music, two from Moussorgsky’s unfinished comic opera Sorochinsky Fair,  the rarely heard Rimsky-Korsakoff Clarinet Concerto, a single-movement, eight-minute piece originally for clarinet and military band; and the famous Vittorio Monti ‘Czardas’ here transcribed for solo clarinet and orchestra. The centerpiece is White’s own Russian Suite, a collection of five folk songs and dances, the first of which, ‘Little Apple,’ is a Ukrainian tune that Soviet composer Reinhold Gliere famously used in his ballet The Red Poppy (1927). The concert is very good. White serves up colorful, sparkling, and idiomatic arrangements; and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia executes them with great aplomb and panache. Scott is solid in his soloist role, offering excellent technique and nice phrasing; yet his tubby tone spreads easily at louder volumes, and his articulation is sometimes undisciplined, almost producing a scooping sound. Even so, the album has several enjoyable moments; and clarinetists looking for solo vehicles outside the traditional concertos should hear this.