Sonatina op. 29 for Clarinet and Band Malcolm Arnold / Arr. Alex Steurs

English composer Malcolm Arnold wrote this compact sonatina in 1951 and it has since become one of his most popular instrumental works. As always with Arnold, it is impeccably crafted: the first movement, with it's wide leaps, the occasional incursion of a six-eight bar into the prevailing four-four, and the lightest of jazzy touches, lives up to its marking of Allegro con brio; while the second demonstates Arnold's love at this period of a gentle cantabile style where no shadows yet lurk. The finale is a wild dance in three-four time marked Furioso, and it is a distant cousin of the Czech Furiant. With its vigorous rhythms and cascading semiquavers, it has something of the open-air quality of Dvorak at his most buccolic - not a frequent influence on Malcolm Arnold, but a highly appropriate one in this charming (and challenging) little work. This version for clarinet solo with wind band has been arranged by saxophone player Alex Steurs.