The Young Concert Artists Series – now in its 44th year – has a winner: He is Jose Franch-Ballester, a 24-year-old Spanish clarinetist. Mr. Franch-Ballester took the palm in YCA’s 2004 International Auditions, and made his New York debut in a recital at the 92nd Street Y Tuesday night. Joining him was Anna Polonsky, a Russian-born pianist.

As we see in his bio, Mr. Franch-Ballester has won every music prize known to man. (I exaggerate, but just slightly.) His teachers include the superb Ricardo Morales, late of the Metropolitan Opera, now with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ms. Polonsky attended Interlochen, Curtis, and Juilliard, a sort of trifecta. Together, the clarinetist and pianist made a capable and musical pair.

The program began with the “Solo de Concours” – competition solo – of Andre Messager, whose operetta arias we sometimes hear (from the mezzo Susan Graham, for example). True to its purpose, this is a piece in which a clarinetist can show his stuff, and Mr. Franch-Ballester showed his, or at least some of it: He has a smooth line, and ample technique. The tone can be pinched – especially in the higher reaches of the instrument – but Mr. Franch-Ballester has time to combat that. Ms. Polonsky was supportive at the piano. The piece ends with a tremolo, which tells you something about its quality.

Next on the program was the Andante and Allegro by Ernest Chausson, known especially for two “Poemes,” one for violin and orchestra, the other for voice and orchestra. His clarinet piece – like the Messager – ends in a tremolo. (Or did Ms. Polonsky interpolate these?)

It begins, however, with sort of an aria, which Mr. Franch-Ballester sang nicely. If he acquired a sweeter, more Shifrinesque tone at the top, he would really be in business. And in Chausson’s Allegro, he displayed even more chops – serious chops – than in the Messager.

Neither of these pieces is immortal – although they’re still playing ’em in 2005, aren’t they? – but Brahms’s clarinet sonatas surely are. Mr. Franch-Ballester and Ms. Polonsky played the first, in F minor; in this work, the tremolos are scarce.

Both musicians could have begun the sonata more lyrically and naturally, but they soon settled down to a worthy performance. Ms. Polonsky played richly but not smotheringly; she was plenty lush, without over pedaling. The slow movement was beautiful, nicely shaped, with Mr. Franch-Ballester making his best sounds of the evening. Incidentally, the supply of sublime Brahms slow movements seems to be endless.

The third movement is marked Allegretto grazioso, and although it was perfectly adequate, I could have used a little more allegretto and a little less grazioso (if you will): The music sagged at times. But the final movement – Vivace – was a total success, played with what we might term Romantic restraint: The impetuosity lurked beneath a decorum. Ms. Polonsky, to her credit, made a big sound without pounding: She knows to play into the keys.

After intermission came the main event: a new piece by Kenji Bunch, who was the Young Concert Artists’ composer-in-residence in 1998,and who teaches in Juilliard’s “pre-college” program. Mr. Bunch came out to serve as Ms. Polonsky’s page-turner, but first he wanted to talk about his piece. Uh-oh. When a composer feels the need to talk about his piece before it is played, that is a bad omen. The music ought to be able to explain and justify itself. My colleague Fred Kirshnit and I often joke, “The speech was better than the music.”

But this was not the case on Tuesday night, thank goodness. Mr. Bunch’s piece is “Cookbook,” in four movements. The conceit is that two loves are combined: the love of cooking (and eating) and the love of composition. The first movement, Smokehouse, is whirling, jaunty, infectious. It is busy busy – smacking of perpetual motion – as much of the work at large is. The second movement, Bubbles, is somewhat parodic: again, a trait of the entire work. In the third movement, Heirloom – as in tomatoes, for one thing – Mr. Franch-Ballester did some nifty trilling and fluttering. Ms. Polonsky played a lovely, slightly tipsy waltz, and ended with particular sensitivity.

The fourth movement is titled “La ultima noche en La Casa de Flamenco” (“The Last Night in the House of Flamenco”). Mr. Franch-Ballester rocked, Spanishly, and Ms. Polonsky put on a pretty good Alicia de Larrocha act, followed by something like a Chick Corea act. At one point, the page-turner – and composer – broke out into clapping, while the pianist knocked on the wood of her instrument (a percussion instrument, after all). She looked a little embarrassed.

“Cookbook” is a clever creation, and if it has an air of novelty about it, that is no great liability. I predict that clarinetists will want to play it. Pete Fountain would be terrific!

Mr. Franch-Ballester closed his printed program with the Fantasia on Themes from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” by Luigi Bassi, principal clarinet at La Scala in the 19th century. Liszt famously “paraphrased” this opera, and, like that work, Bassi’s fantasy is not terribly dignified. But it is fun, engaging, and properly show-offy. Mr. Franch-Ballester played the dickens out of it.

We should hail his emergence, for, clarinet-wise, man cannot live by David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman, and Ricardo Morales alone. And, oh, yes, there is Sabine Meyer. Frankly, one could live by those four alone – but it’s good to have Jose Franch-Ballester, yet another prodigy of the Young Concert Artists Series, founded and overseen by the noble Susan Wadsworth.