This might be a disc for clarinet players and woodwind enthusiasts. There are 11 pieces (written between 2006 and 2022), some in short multiple movements, and the Rome-born, New York-based composer and clarinettist Paolo Marchettini (b.1974) plays all but one of them. His playing, and that of his three clarinet colleagues, is impressive. He is an expressive and characterful player both in the lighter pieces and the more experimental solos. The music seems to fall into three styles: unashamedly light and frothy as in the Cinque Fanfare Napoletane, a pastiche for four players; a more serious music which sounds remarkably like the chromatic harmonic style of the Viennese composer Alfred Uhl's Divertimento for four players (many clarinet players will know this classic piece but all clarinettists will know Uhl's two books of studies (1940) written to introduce more ‘modern’ idioms); and a group of solo pieces which push his vocabulary towards extended techniques – for me these are the best music, some of them very short but always focused and beautifully played by Marchettini. The one piece he doesn't play is Entrée, a slightly longer intricate and energetic solo for bass clarinet, superbly played by Tommy Shermulis.

The opening solo, Il canto del giorno, sounds like an expansion of one of those slow, Copland-esque clarinet melodies, but the other solos are more experimental with multiphonics, fake fingerings giving new microtonal scales and so on. I like the recording because you hear everything: some slightly rattly keys, air and breathing sounds, that quiet smacking sound you get when the reed is detached from the lower lip at the ends of pieces, even the odd page turn all make for a more authentic concert sound – clarinet players will recognise and enjoy these ‘noises off’ and I suspect some of these pieces were recorded in one take or at least long takes. Everything is well written for the instrument and it all sounds very playable, so these pieces would suit conservatory or younger players who want to explore beyond the usual mainstream repertoire.