Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Clarinet Quintet in A major, KV 581
01 Allegro
02 Larghetto
03 Menuetto
04 Allegretto con variazioni

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Clarinet Quintet in B minor, opus 115
05 Allegro
06 Adagio
07 Andantino - Presto non assai
08 Con moto

These clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms represent two pinnacles, not only in the repertoire for the clarinet, but also in the genre of chamber music. Written late in the lives of both composers, they embody the maturity, depth, experience and possibly even a premonition of an other-worldliness soon to be experienced firsthand. It is significant that both works were inspired by particular clarinet players – Anton Stadler for Mozart and Richard Mühlfeld for Brahms. Both were known as outstanding musicians who also had a predilection for slightly unusual instruments. Stadler had worked together with the instrument maker Theodor Lotz to develop the basset clarinet, an instrument with an extended low range. And Mühlfeld played on slightly out-of-date Bärmann-system clarinets by Georg Ottensteiner, made of boxwood, at a time where most players were using blackwood instruments and a more advanced mechanism.

The clarinets used for this recording reflect the differences inherent in instruments separated by roughly a hundred years. Both are unusual and highly specialized. These boxwood clarinets, together with period string instruments set up with gut strings and played with period bows, create a sound world quite unlike that heard with today’s modern clarinets and strings. The possibilities for articulation, dynamics and phrasing, as well as the blend and colourful sound world of the instruments, bring out expressive qualities in the music that might otherwise be more difficult, or perhaps even impossible, to reach.