John Carmichael
John Carmichael writes melodic, neo-Romantic music coloured by Spanish folk idiom and French influence. The piano sits at the centre of his catalogue, which also reaches concertos and chamber works for winds.
Flamenco fascination shaped his best-known score, the Concierto folklorico for piano and strings, and still colours the later Second Piano Concerto. Chamber pieces such as the Pastorale for clarinet and piano sit easily beside French repertoire on disc, while flute-and-harp writing carries the same lyrical line into lighter textures. Across concertos, piano four hands and small ensembles he has kept a style set early: expressive, rhythmic and unashamedly tuneful.
Compositions by John Carmichael appear on
Miscellany for Flute and Harp
Throughout history composers have been drawn to the flute and harp pairing, from the shepherd’s pan-pipes and Orphean lyre of ancient Arcadia to the French court of Marie-Antoinette and Mozart’s duo concerto for the two instruments.
A Year in Paris
Clarinet and piano music by Poulenc, Carmichael, Benjamin, Cahuzac, Debussy, Stanhope, Brumby and Françaix. Nicole Canham spent a year in Paris studying at the Versailles Conservatoire.