One of the few clarinettists to forge a successful solo career, Emma Johnson has built her reputation on her eclectic programming and sublime powers of expression – as she vividly demonstrated on Saturday. This was more that just a mere recital; this was a masterclass in how to combine technique with dramatic and emotional involvement in the music, while showcasing the clarinet’s extraordinary versatility in both character and tone. Whether playing Aaron Copland’s reflective Nocturne or Bernstein’s jazz-inspired Clarinet Sonata, Ms Johnson finds the appropriate voice in her instrument, and commands the attention with her inspired playing.

A very visual performer, she is constantly on the move, at times almost dancing in her enthusiasm, and she punctuates her performance with informative and sometimes amusing commentary. Weber’s Silvana Variations, for example, with which she opened the evening, were written to publicise the opera Silvana, after its opening night struggled to compete with the launch of the world’s first hot air balloon.

Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie, we were told, was written as a test piece for students at the Paris Conservatoire, and was appropriately virtuosic in its demands. How those students coped with the challenge is anyone’s guess, but Emma Johnson certainly had no qualms, attacking it fearlessly. Debussy, you feel sure, would have approved. So too, surely, would Brahms, if he’d heard the way she emphasised the contrasting moods in his Clarinet Sonata in F minor, while Stravinsky would undoubtedly have loved the energy of his Three Pies for Clarinet Solo.

Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie was an opportunity for Pascale Rogé, Ms Johnson’s reliable accompanist, to demonstrate his own reflective and dramatic qualities – what a shame that the tender, closing moments were marred by intrusive noise from outside.

Milhaud’s exuberant Scaramouche brought the evening to an uplifting close, but Ms Johnson was obliged to give two encores before the audience would let her go. A sublime evening of exemplary music-making.