A Lotus Blossoming

04/03/2012
Stephen Pettitt
Sunday Times (UK)

Zemlinksy’s Clarinet Trio of 1896 speaks of its own century and particularly, with its soaring phrases, of Brahms. The Ensemble Liaison offer a refined, cogent reading, intimate and beautifully weighted. They meet equally well the challenges of Messiaen’s celebrated prison-camp piece of 1941, the clarinettist David Griffiths impressively controlled in his unaccompanied number, the demanding Abîme des oiseaux.