Search - Jon Manasse :: Mozart: Clarinet Concerto; Spohr: Clarinet Concerto No. 2

'Non-standard' solo instruments have always made their way in the chamber music and concerto worlds through the advocacy of exceptional players. In the last ten years of his short life, Mozart developed a strong predilection for the clarinet, prompted by his admiration for the playing of Anton Stadler. Quite aside from the new prominence he accorded the instrument in two of his last three symphonies, it was for Stadler that he wrote his trio, quintet and, just two months before his death, the concerto recorded here. American clarinetist Jon Manasse delivers an unusually insightful reading of this evergreen work, ably accompanied by the Seattle Symphony led by Gerard Schwarz. The second of Ludwig Spohr's four concertos for the clarinet is an apt pairing for the Mozart, and Manasse gives the work a fresh and buoyant performance.