Françaix: Tema con variazioni for clarinet & piano

“this is beautifully detailed playing throughout. And a fine balance of just that clarity and colour, elegance and lyricism, that I was talking about right at the beginning. That’s why, of these three excellent new recordings, this is the one I would personally buy.” BBC R3 CD Review

Jean Françaix personified, with a kind of perfection, all the qualities that one likes to assign to our compatriots. Grace and humor, clarity and modesty, tenderness and intelligence. He aspired to be the continuation of a line which, after Debussy and Ravel, is not encumbered by biases, or avant-garde... The word that best defines the music of Jean Françaix: happiness.

Shirley Brill studied with Sabine Meyer at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and with Richard Stoltzman at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Her career was launched with a performance as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. She has since performed with various international orchestras, most recently as a soloist with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester at the Berliner Philharmonie. She regularly performs with pianist Jonathan Aner as a member of the Brillaner Duo, playing in such halls as the Carnegie Hall and the Beethoven-Haus. Later this year she will tour with the West East Diwan Orchestra on their Beethoven Cycle which visits the BBC Proms.

"Shirley Brill is one of the most accomplished clarinetists of our day ... She is blessed with a beautiful sound, sensitive musicality and a deep understanding for structure." Daniel Barenboim