Iain Hamilton with John Davies
After much fascinating work and research, I am now able (all permissions formally granted!) to post the first movement of the Iain Hamilton Clarinet Quintet, Op.2 played by John Davies with the Aeolean Quartet as broadcast in March 1950 on the BBC.
Amazingly the quality is very good. It was transferred from a set of really poor 78s and I didn't think it would be possible. They were in a severe state of decay and disintegration! But I found an expert who has done a truly magnificent job and so we can now hear this rarely played work in a very rare recording – I have the rest of the work (which I hope to post eventually), and together with the slow movement of the Mozart Quintet, this is about all we have of JD actually playing. It’s a moving and dark work – it really deserves to be known and John plays it beautifully.
I have written a longer article about the Quintet and all about this recording for the next edition of the ICA Magazine.