It was a real treat to play again with wonderful musician Mike Reed in our London recital on Sunday. Works included tracks from my new album Found in the Sunlight and first album Found in the Rain, alongside some of my favourite repertoire for clarinet and piano.

We started with Poulenc’s Sonata with its fiery and witty first movement. The beautiful second movement with its long languid melody comes to a dramatic end setting the tone for the frenzied last movement, also dramatic and even more fiery than the first! It’s so great to play as is the last movement of the Horowitz (one of my all-time favourite clarinet sonatas) which we ended the concert with.

We also played Romance and Carol from Finzi’s beautiful Bagatelles. It was performing these at the age of 14 that prompted my decision to be a musician and they are very close to my heart. They are so pure and innocent and for me somehow reflect the truth and beauty of nature. It’s always very special to perform again with an old friend after a lapse in time.. each performance one does is a re-creation of the composer’s notes and the beauty of that for me is the delightful awareness of experiencing newness within the familiarity of the old trodden paths. It’s a bit like revisiting a beloved painting that one hasn’t seen for a while, perhaps of a rustic scene, and noting the subtle things unseen or forgotten before…perhaps an old gate or even simply the magical texture within the bark of a tree.

It was great to play for such a lovely and receptive audience; St Paul’s in Chiswick is a lovely venue with wonderful acoustics, and I’m greatly looking forward to my next concert in Denmark!