These are highly enjoyable and easy to find.

 

I would definitely go for Robert Marcellus with Szell and Cleveland. It’s the best recording of this glorious piece IMO. But those above are all very fine as well

 

My personal favorite:

He performs is on a basset clarinet. Mozart original for the basset clarinet. It is slightly longer the modern Bb soprano clarinet.

 

He also did a recording in 2014 with the Deutsche kamerphilharmonie, what do you think of that one if you’ve heard it?

 

This concerto, like most from Mozart, is indestructible. It is so perfect it can hardly be played poorly. In fact I have never heard a bad recording or performance. The wonderful adagio even sounded good and meaningful when used by Moroder in the soundtrack of the film American Gigolo.

 

 

Haven't heard the Schifrin in a long time but I recall how it knocked me out the first time I heard it.

 

Thea King also did a much-feted rendition on basset clarinet. I don't know how to post cover pix.

 

First CD version I bought. Didn't like it at first - it was to refined. But I've grown to appreciate it.

 

Böhm's version sounds a bit too well-behaved for me. But Alois Prinz played the clarinet concerto a few years earlier with the Vienna Philharmonic, but under Karl Münchinger: in my humble ears, the best recording. Everything sounds so natural, lively, simply perfect!

Also available digitally in the Münchinger Box by Decca.

 

We played it with Shifrin s few years back...he sounded terrific..
Marcellus/Szell/CO is a famous one... well-deserved praise...

 

One should in any case hear a version with the extended/basset clarinet because for the standard A clarinet the piece was edited, sometimes clumsily with "jumps" into an octave higher because the lowest 2-3? notes cannot be played. I think that since the mid/late 1980 almost every recording used such a clarinet with extended range but older ones do not.

 

I prefer Hogwood's collection of wind concertos that includes Antony Pay on a basset clarinet in the concerto. I'm neither here nor there on that instrument; I have no preference between period or modern clarinet -- they don't sound much different to me. The rest of the collection does, however, especially Danny Bond's period bassoon which is terrific. I like Hogwood's leadership and AAM's playing -- period but not absurd in any way.

 

I would identify Mozart's Clarinet Concerto as one of my favorite pieces of classical music that best exemplifies Mozart's sense of seamless craftsmanship, balance, and beauty. Of the several recordings I have of it in my own music library, my favorite is the one by George Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra and with in-house clarinet player, Robert Marcellus, as soloist. While I sometimes find Szell's recordings to be a bit too measured or "clinical"; this one comes off nicely.

The recording has been released and reissued in many incarnations. The one I purchased is from the CBS budget line (Great Performances) that looks like newspaper headline which I first purchased in LP form before upgrading to CD.

 

I sometimes find Szell's recordings to be a bit too measured or "clinical";

I agree, though there are many exceptions. Apparently, he rehearsed the orchestra so intensely that they sometimes left their best performances in rehearsal and were too restrained in actual performance. I seem to remember a quote from Szell himself in which he says something like this. But I'm not going to search for it.

 

There is an embarrassment of riches here. With Frost, Schifrin, Marcellus, etc. you can't go far wrong. Jack Brymer is another good choice. But if you're looking for a (nearly) complete set of the Mozart wind concertos, this is a good bet. Gervase de Peyer, clarinet, William Bennett, flute, John Mack, oboe, David McGill, bassoon and Barry Tuckwell, horn.

I prefer Hogwood's collection of wind concertos that includes Antony Pay on a basset clarinet in the concerto. I'm neither here nor there on that instrument; I have no preference between period or modern clarinet -- they don't sound much different to me. The rest of the collection does, however, especially Danny Bond's period bassoon which is terrific. I like Hogwood's leadership and AAM's playing -- period but not absurd in any way.
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If original instruments and HIP versions are your thing, this set is also a very good choice. Flutist Lisa Beznosiuk is superb in 18th-century repertoire from Bach to Mozart, playing "old" or "simple" system flutes that have a completely different sound from modern ones.

 

There is an embarrassment of riches here. With Frost, Schifrin, Marcellus, etc. you can't go far wrong. Jack Brymer is another good choice. But if you're looking for a (nearly) complete set of the Mozart wind concertos, this is a good bet. Gervase de Peyer, clarinet, William Bennett, flute, John Mack, oboe, David McGill, bassoon and Barry Tuckwell, horn.
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If original instruments and HIP versions are your thing, this set is also a very good choice. Flutist Lisa Beznosiuk is superb in 18th-century repertoire from Bach to Mozart, playing "old" or "simple" system flutes that have a completely different sound from modern ones.

Orpheus has a three disc set. Charlie Neidich is the clarinetist. Can’t recall all of the soloists offhand, but they’d be members of the orchestra.

 

Just uploaded my video on this work

 

Great video! Thanks. I notice your first choice is the one I recommended above, the de Peyer / Maag 1959 recording, that you can get in a 2-cd Decca set with some other very good and well-known recordings of the other Mozart wind concerti.