Nairn Community Centre, Nairn,  24 February 2011

THERE IS no point beating about the bush. When it comes to clarinettists, Emma Johnson is in a class apart. And in my over half a century of concert-going, I can truthfully say that only a small handful of performances measure up to that given by Emma Johnson, accompanied by John Lenehan, for Music Nairn in the Community and Arts Centre.

After being crowned BBC Young Musician of the Year 1984, Johnson resisted the lure of a career on the international stage and instead continued her education, reading Music at Cambridge. Those few years of study and polishing helped turn her from overnight sensation into the consummate musician and entertainer that she is today.

Emma Johnson (credit Joe Bangay)

Johnson had curated her programme with care to take her audience through a journey of music connected with America in a concert of two contrasting, but interdependent halves, the first classical and the second inspired by jazz.

Much has been written about Antonin Dvořák’s time in America in the 1890s after he had been recruited by the wealthy socialite Jeanette Thurber to found the National Conservatory of Music in New York with the remit of encouraging the growth of American music. Dvořák was intensely homesick for his native Bohemia and made frequent trips to visit the Czech community in Spillsville, Iowa where he composed not only the New World Symphony and the ‘American’ quartet and quintet, but also the beautiful Sonatina in G major, originally for violin and piano, that transcribes so satisfactorily for clarinet and piano.

Emma Johnson made much of the American folk influence of the tunes in this sonatina, setting the mood with lavish syncopation in the opening allegro. The sudden contrast in character of the larghetto, with its soubriquet ‘Indian Lament’ served to highlight the enormous range of emotions that can be drawn out of her instrument, whereas for the Scherzo and Finale the clarinet returned to the opening playful dance-like style.

Dvořák was not the only European composer who suffered from homesickness in America. Some twenty years later Sergei Rachmaninov went through the same emotions, and like Dvořák, found solace in his compositions. His Vocalise, originally for soprano and piano, is a song without words and has been transcribed into virtually every imaginable arrangement, including one for twenty-four cellos. Emma Johnson may not be the first to transcribe Vocalise for clarinet and piano, but she brought to it a remarkable sense of emotion as the beautiful theme soared with a passionate outpouring.

The final piece in the classical half of this concert was the Sonata by Aaron Copland, again transcribed by Emma Johnson from violin to clarinet. Written in 1942 just after the composer had learned that a close friend had been killed in action, Johnson brought to the outer movements all the bustle and colour that Copland had intended, leaving the central lento to serve as an elegy to the dead friend in a short movement filled with wrenching emotion.

The second half brought not just a change in musical style, but also a change in appearance. Gone was the full length burgundy satin skirt; to be replaced by a sparkling Art Deco inspired white mini-dress with black edgings and knee length boots that verged towards the kinky. What did not change was the way that Emma Johnson engaged with her audience, using informative but accessible introductions, flawlessly delivered.

We were told how, after her BBC competition success, the doyen of British jazz, John Dankworth took her under his wing and composed the Suite for Emma. We were treated to two of its movements, the Pavane in which the clarinet seemed to fly away into a world of its own, and the Scherzo, which was packed, as a scherzo should be, with little quirks or musical jokes.

For a couple of numbers John Lenehan left the platform, vainly it transpired, in search of a whisky! Steve Reich is a composer who is at the forefront of minimalist music and in most cases when his name is seen in a concert programme, there is a pre-recorded loop waiting to accompany the soloist. New York Counterpoint is no exception, with the loop providing a mesmerising musical environment of pulsating sonorities while Emma Johnson provided the counterpoint of reflections, at times repetitive, at times like birdsong, but at all times building up the bustle of a busy New York musical streetscape.

If Steve Reich is at the forefront of minimalist music, its father is Tom Johnson, who coined the phrase [it has also been attributed to Michael Nyman – Ed.]. His Bedtime Stories for Clarinet and Narrator could well owe something to James Thurber. Emma Johnson told three of the stories, as well as illustrating them with clarinet. The first involved a couple in bed arguing over who should tell who a bedtime story to help them get to sleep.  ‘Couple Giving a Dinner Party’ involves the use of just two notes, one representing men and the other women, as a couple who are awaiting the arrival of six guests discuss the options of the table seating arrangements.

Finally there was the story of ‘Five Boys Trying to Climb a Tree’, again all illustrated by the clarinet. The first loses his nerve, the second his grip, the third his confidence and the fourth his courage. Then the fifth boy makes it all the way to the top of the tree. But he had been practising all week! All rather silly, but delightfully so!

Alec Templeton was a Welsh musician who emigrated and achieved success in America, especially when his best known composition Bach Goes To Town was recorded in 1938 by the King of Swing, Benny Goodman, arguably the greatest of all jazz clarinettists. It is frequently a worry when classically trained musicians try to cross over to popular or jazz music as their skill tends to be constrained. However, it was a relief to hear Emma Johnson break free and she was spot on with her swinging Bach Goes To Town, leaving John Lenehan in hot pursuit.

Going the other way to Templeton, Edward MacDowell was raised in New York, but moved to Europe to study at the Paris Conservatoire. However success eluded him on this side of the Atlantic and in 1888 he returned to New England, where he wrote his most famous composition, Woodland Sketches, from which Emma Johnson played the ever-popular ‘To a Wild Rose’ in a soft, sweet and gentle arrangement.

The finale to the programme was simply described at ‘Scenes from West Side Story’ by Leonard Bernstein, and as our soloist said, “I don’t need to introduce them.” Three of the great numbers from that show were featured in a brilliant, emotional arrangement; ‘Rumble’, with the clarinet making all the sounds of the orchestra, a very plaintiff ‘Somewhere’, followed by a virtuoso, zip-along ‘America’.

Inevitably, the packed Nairn audience bayed for an encore and the last of Emma Johnson’s excellent introductions was simply, “We can’t finish without something by Gershwin,” and these two exceptional musicians launched into I Got Rhythm, conventionally at first, but you can’t keep a good woman down and Emma Johnson meandered off into some superb improvisations before returning to that pounding theme. They really flew! Music Nairn has never heard anything quite like it before, and there were not a few members of the audience who are looking forward to the next time.

© James Munro, 2011

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• Emma Johnson
• Music Nairn