Brahms: Clarinet Trio, The Clarinet Sonatas Joseph Shiner, Somi Kim, Yoanna Prodanova

• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114:
• 1 Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114: I. Allegro 07:42
• 2 Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114: II. Adagio 07:09
• 3 Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114: III. Andantino grazioso 04:29
• 4 Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op. 114: IV. Allegro 04:28
• Clarinet Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1:
• 5 Clarinet Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1: I. Allegro appassionato 07:50
• 6 Clarinet Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1: II. Andante un poco adagio 04:50
• 7 Clarinet Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1: III. Allegretto grazioso 04:16
• 8 Clarinet Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120 No. 1: IV. Vivace 05:08
• Clarinet Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 120 No. 2:
• 9 Clarinet Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 120 No. 2: I. Allegro amabile 07:50
• 10 Clarinet Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 120 No. 2: II. Allegro appassionato 05:05
• 11 Clarinet Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 120 No. 2: III. Andante con moto - Allegro 06:41
• Total Runtime 01:05:28

Info for Brahms: Clarinet Trio, The Clarinet Sonatas

Joseph Shiner and Somi Kim perform the last chamber works ever written by Brahms: his Clarinet Sonatas, heard here alongside his sublime Clarinet Trio, for which they are joined by cellist Yoanna Prodanova. Brahms was so enchanted by the playing of clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld that he came out of retirement in order to write four chamber works for the soloist. Three of those works are featured on this album, interpreted by the exciting up-and-coming clarinetist Joseph Shiner, with Somi Kim at the piano and, for the Trio, cellist Yoanna Prodanova. As so often in Brahms’s paired works, the two sonatas have contrasting characters, the second gentler than the first, although both are highly nuanced, balancing taut structures with expressive, often wistful lyricism. The Trio is an expansive piece which includes in its first movement a theme originally intended for what would have been Brahms’s Fifth Symphony.

Joseph Shiner, clarinet
Somi Kim, piano
Yoanna Prodanova, violincello

Joseph Shiner
regularly appears at venues and festivals around the United Kingdom and internationally. To date he is the recipient of numerous prizes including the Hattori Foundation Senior Award, the Making Music Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists, the Worshipful Company of Musician’s Prince’s Prize and the Royal Academy of Music’s Buffet Crampon Clarinet Prize. A selected artist for Making Music and the City Music Foundation, he is currently Artist-in-Residence at Lancing College, and was featured as BBC Music Magazine's 'Rising Star' in August 2016.

Joseph made his London solo debut with the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra at St. John’s Smith Square in 2011, and was a public finalist for the Young Classical Artists Trust in 2015. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with the Endellion and Alauda quartets, as well as pianists Somi Kim and Ashley Fripp, and is a founding member of the wind chamber group ‘Magnard Ensemble’. As an orchestral musician, Joseph has performed with, among others, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, BBC Concert Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. ​

Joseph’s initial study took place at Wells Cathedral School under the tutelage of Kevin Murphy and Timothy Orpen, during which time he was principal clarinet of the National Youth Orchestra as well as a BBC Young Musician Wind Category finalist. He subsequently read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, graduating with First Class honours and several awards and prizes, before moving on to study with Angela Malsbury, Mark van de Wiel and Chi-Yu Mo at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he graduated with Distinction and the DipRAM. Subsequently he has undertaken private study with Patrick Messina, Christopher Richards and Andrew Marriner.

Somi Kim
South Korean born New Zealand pianist, Somi Kim has established herself as one of today's most highly regarded young pianists with a string of competition successes and an extensive concert experience.

Somi graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with an Advanced Diploma in Performance and Master of Arts with Distinction, receiving the HRH Princess Alice the Duchess of Gloucester’s Prize, a DipRAM and the Christian Carpenter Prize for the Best Recital. Somi is the 2017 winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Accompanist Prize, and has received the Gerald Moore Award for Accompanists, AESS Patricia Routledge National English Song Accompanist Prize, Mozart Singing Competition Accompanist Prize, Bromsgrove International Musicians Competition Accompanist Prize, Vivian Langrish Memorial Trust Prize, Thomas Art of Song Accompanist Prize, Major van Someron-Godfery Prize for Accompanists, WCOM Concordia Serena Nevill and Barthel Prizes and the 6th Pettman/Royal Over-Seas League Arts International Scholarship. Somi made her debut with Chamber Music New Zealand in 2015.

Sought after as a chamber musician, song accompanist and répétiteur, Somi is an artist for the Kirckman Concert Society, Park Lane Group, Concordia Foundation and is a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. Somi is a scholar on the Britten-Pears and Samling Artist Programmes, Georg Solti Accademia, and is a staff pianist at the International Holland Music Sessions, International Vocal Competition ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Gisborne International Music Competition and the New Zealand Opera School. Somi is a guest artist with the NZTrio - a piano trio that is recognised as a ‘national treasure’ and as ‘New Zealand’s most indispensable ensemble’.

In recital, Somi’s recent and future appearances include Het Concertgebouw, Slovak Philharmonic, Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, Bridgewater Hall and the Edinburgh Fringe, Ryedale, St Endellion and Oxford Lieder Festivals.

Yoanna Prodanova
was born in Bulgaria in 1992. She moved to Canada in her early teens before starting her studies at the Conservatoire de Montréal with Denis Brott and obtaining a Diplôme d’études Supérieures (with highest honours). She completed her Bachelor and Master degrees at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (funded by the Guildhall Trust, Frost Trust and Help Musicians UK) with Louise Hopkins, Richard Lester and Rebecca Gilliver before continuing her studies in at the Royal Academy of Music with Hannah Roberts on the prestigious Advanced Diploma course as a Bicentenary Scholar in 2018.

Yoanna is recipient of the 2016 Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Artistst, as well as the Sylva Gelber Award for two consecutive years. As a concerto soloist she has performed with the Amati Orchestra, Banbury Symphony and Surrey Philharmonic, as well as the Sinfonia de Lanaudière (Canada) and Dobrich Chamber Orchestra (Bulgaria).

She regularly performs in the UK, Europe and Canada and has appeared in such venues as the Wigmore Hall, Milton Court and Barbican Hall, Casa de Musica Porto and Tonhalle Zurich. Her festival appearances include recitals in St Magnus, Buxton and Harrogate festivals, as well as chamber music in Festival dos Siete Lagos (Argentina), Rencontres de violoncelle de Bélaye, Alderney and Newbury Festivals, among others. She has also participated in IMS Prussia Cove, Music Academy of the West, London Masterclasses, Banff and Kronberg Festival. Her performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, CBC Radio 1 and Medici TV.

A dedicated chamber musician, Yoanna is the cellist of the Barbican String Quartet, who did their Wigmore Hall début in 2017 thanks to the Maisie Lewis Award, and are also recipients of the RPS Frost Award. She regularly works with pianist Mihai Ritivoiu. The duo is making their first recording in 2019 for Linn Records comprising of works by Janacek, Fauré and Chopin. Additionally, her recording of Brahms chamber music for clarinet and piano with Joseph Shiner and Somi Kim is released by Orchid Classics in 2019. Yoanna plays on a 1788 Giuseppe Gagliano cello generously loaned to her by the Canimex Group.

Booklet for Brahms: Clarinet Trio, The Clarinet Sonatas