Composed two months before Mozart's death, the Clarinet Concerto K. 622
marks the beginning and climax of clarinet literature. It set standards,
was never equaled, and became the undisputed landmark on which Weber,
Strauss, Debussy and Busoni guided themselves. Mozart masterfully exploited
the particular sound quality of the instrument and the various timbres of
its registers to produce a work of ethereal beauty and lyrical elegance.
The Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein lives up to its
usual high standard in this interpretation of "its" Mozart. Incidentally,
the soloist Peter Schmidl, who has been solo clarinetist of the Vienna
Philharmonic since 1968, is the son and grandson of former solo
clarinetists of this same orchestra!