Soft and cantabile, with sparkling virtuosity: we owe it to the internationally celebrated soloist Sabine Meyer that the clarinet has conquered the world's concert stages as a solo instrument. She has been rediscovering forgotten repertoire for decades now, presenting to a delighted public not only the famous clarinet concertos by Mozart, Weber and Rossini, but also gems by lesser known composers.

Contents:
CD 1
Mozart loved the clarinet above all for its singing tone, which inspired him to write one of his most beautiful concertos for the instrument. We hear it here in Sabine Meyer's preferred original version for bass clarinet. Less well-known but no less masterly is Mozart's Sinfonia concertante Es-Dur, where a complete wind quartet engages in concertante dialogue with the orchestra!!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Clarinet Concerto in A, KV.622 (Reconstruction of the original version for basset clarinet)
1. I Allegro
2. II Adagio
3. III Rondo
Sabine Meyer (basset clarinet)
Staatskapelle Dresden / Hans Vonk

Sinfonia concertante in E flat for oboe, clarinet, horn & bassoon, KV.297b
4. I Allegro
5. II Adagio
6. III Andantino con variazioni
Sabine Meyer (clarinet), Diethelm Jonas (oboe), Bruno Schneider (horn), Sergio Azzolini (bassoon)
Staatskapelle Dresden / Hans Vonk

Total time: 56.18

CD 2
When Sabine Meyer started out, many journalists wondered how she was going to make a career for herself with so little solo repertoire for the clarinet. But they had underestimated the curiosity of this great soloist, whose reference recordings of Carl Stamitz’s clarinet concertos ushered in a long overdue rediscovery of this Czech contemporary of Mozart’s and important Early Classical composer.

Carl Stamitz
Concerto No.1 in F for clarinet and orchestra
1. I Allegro
2. II Andante moderato
3. III Rondeau

Concerto in B flat for basset horn and orchestra
4. I Allegro
5. II Romance (Poco adagio)
6. III Rondo (Allegro)

Concerto in B flat for clarinet, bassoon and orchestra
7. I Allegro moderato
8. II Andante moderato
9. III Rondo

Concerto No.7 in E flat for clarinet and orchestra 'Darmstädt Concerto'
10. I Allegro molto
11. II Adagio
12. III Rondeau

Sabine Meyer (clarinet, basset horn), Sergio Azzolini (bassoon)
Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Iona Brown

CD 3
The success of her first Stamitz album made music-lovers the world over keen to hear more of his work played by Sabine Meyer, and the lady clarinettist responded with another surprise – a second recording featuring concertos by Carl Stamitz and his father Johann. Here we see the Stamitzes as a trailblazing family of Early Classical composers, among whose works is one of the very earliest clarinet concertos.

Carl Stamitz
Clarinet Concerto No.3 in B flat
1. I Allegro moderato
2. II Romanze
3. III Rondo

Clarinet Concerto No.11 in E flat
4. I Allegro
5. II Aria (Andante moderato)
6. III Rondo alla scherzo (Allegro moderato)

Johann Stamitz
Clarinet Concerto in B flat
7 I Allegro moderato
8 II Adagio
9 III Poco presto

Carl Stamitz
Clarinet Concerto No.10 in B flat
10. I [Allegro ]
11. II [Andante sostenuto]
12. III [Rondo (Poco allegro)]

Sabine Meyer (clarinet)
Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Iona Brown

Total time: 65.41

CD 4
Virtuoso Rossini variations and concertos where the solo clarinets engage in masterly musical duels: Sabine Meyer shines here alongside her brother Wolfgang as duo partner in the double concertos by Mozart's Czech contemporary Franz Vincenz Krommer – hitherto a real ‘secret tip‘ in the clarinet concerto repertoire.

Franz Vinzenz Krommer
Concerto for 2 clarinets in E flat, op.35
1. I Allegro
2. II Adagio
3. III Rondo

Concerto for 2 clarinets in E flat, op.91
4. I Allegro
5. II Adagio
6. III Alla Polacca

Gioacchino Rossini
7. Variazioni per Clarinetto e piccola Orchestra in C major
8. Introduzione, Tema e Variazioni per Clarinetto e Orchestra in B flat

Sabine Meyer (clarinet), Wolfgang Meyer (clarinet)
Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn / Jörg Faerber

Total time: 61.53

CD 5
Many people still see him first and foremost as the composer of Der Freischütz, but Carl Maria von Weber was also a brilliant composer of virtuoso concertos, and like Mozart he loved the clarinet more than any other instrument. Sabine Meyer's Weber recordings enjoy reference status, thanks to the unsurpassed mixture of virtuosity and Romanticism.

Carl Maria von Weber
Clarinet Concerto No.1 in F minor, op.73
1. I Allegro (Cadenza: Heinrich Joseph Bärmann)
2. II Adagio ma non troppo
3. III Rondo (Allegretto)
Sabine Meyer (clarinet)
Staatskapelle Dresden / Herbert Blomstedt

Concertino in E flat, op.26
4. I Adagio ma non troppo
5. II Andante
6. III Allegro
Sabine Meyer (clarinet)
Staatskapelle Dresden / Herbert Blomstedt

Clarinet Concerto No.2 in E flat, op.74
7. I Allegro
8. II Romanza (Andante)
9. III Alla polacca
Sabine Meyer (clarinet)
Staatskapelle Dresden / Herbert Blomstedt

Clarinet Quintet in B flat (version for string orchestra), op.34
10. I Allegro
11. II Fantasia (Adagio ma non troppo)
12. III Menuetto (Capriccio presto) & Trio
13. IV Rondo (Allegro giocoso)
Sabine Meyer (clarinet)
Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn / Jörg Faerber

Total time: 78.36