Salon des oubliés: British composer York Bowen’s magnificent Clarinet Sonata

The anniversary year sometimes makes it sound like Benjamin Britten — genius or not — was the only art music composer to grace the British Isles in the 20th century. There were other greats, including York Bowen (1884-1961), eclipsed by fashion, not necessarily better music.

Bowen went from being a pianistic sensation much like Sergei Rachmaninov before World War I, to a marginal figure when tastes changed.

Pianist Stephen Hough is one of Bowen’s 21st century champions, and head of the 5-year-old York Bowen Society (check it out here).

The music says it all.

Here, for a rainy Sunday known groggily in Toronto as the day after Nuit Blanche, is a broad-shouldered Clarinet Sonata that turned 70 this year, very nicely played by the Endymion Ensemble:

John Terauds