Askell Masson

Sonatina

The Sonatina's three movements are played without a break. The opening Andante is a dark, slow waltz - a spectre, perhaps, of old Vienna - with its tightly coiled motifs leading to a more lyrical, meditative duet, before trilling straight into the rollicking, frisky Allegro. Notes flutter and rise in blithe larksong, before staccato dancing. After a brief silence, the piano has a loose-limbed, improvisatory interlude before the music dances its way back, tightening and teasing its musical material to a high climax point before subsiding into the Adagio. This returns to the dark, sober piano chords of the opening, and a cadenza-like clarinet passage seems to reflect on all that has gone before.
Hilary Finch