‘The catalyst for this recording of Australian trios for clarinet, viola and piano was the rediscovery by Sydney University researcher Katherine Howarth of the long-lost manuscript of Margaret Sutherland’s Clarinet Trio in a collection on of uncatalogued manuscripts at the University of Melbourne.

Serendipitously, around the same time, Peter Dart had just completed his Clarinet Trio Peripheral Visions, and I had long wanted to record Roger Smalley’s Trio as well. Moreover, although Brett Dean’s Night Window had been recorded once before, we felt that it was ripe for a new recording, especially as the earlier one was no longer easily obtainable. Also he had already mentioned to us that it was so to speak his Op.1. And fortunately there was just enough room to include two very contrasting short works by Andrew Schultz and Richard Vella.

There are still a number of Australian clarinet trios needing to be recorded, most notably that of Gordon Kerry, but hopefully in the meantime these six very contrasting works demonstrate the diversity of voices in contemporary Australian composition.’ Daniel Herscovitch