Sonatina for clarinet and piano Op.3

The first public performance of William Mathias's Sonatina for clarinet and piano, Op.3 in a SPNM concert on 13 July at the Town Hall in the 1957 Festival, put the Welsh composer on the international map. This piece was written when the composer was a student, at the Royal Academy of Music in 1956. It was then performed by John Hempenstall with the composer at the piano; in Cheltenham the performers were John Davies and Else Cross. Alan Hacker also played it with the composer on a number of occasion.
It was not published, however, for about twenty years, and in 1976 Mathias made a few minor textural revisions to this end. Listening today, it is fascinating to observe how many of Mathias' inimitable fingerprints are already present at such an early stage: the syncopated self-propelling rhythms, eloquent lyricism and life-enhancing exuberance.

Geraint Lewis