Clarinet concertos anyone?

Mozart A Major, K622 of course. (It's always Mozart). I have a SACD with Neville Marriner conducting, and his son Andrew on Clarinet. (Pentatone PTC 5186 048).

The clarinet was still in the process of evolution as Mozart was writing, and he designed the Quintet and Concerto for the instrument developed by his friend and fellow Freemason, the clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler (1753-1812); the "bassett clarinet". This instrument was no success, but of course Mozart's music lived on - although in arrangements for other solo instruments notably viola, made after his death. Mozart's original solo part for the concerto is today vanished. For the solo part to be playable on the clarinet, the arranger had to do adaptations of the melodic material.

Viola players consider this concerto to be theirs, and are quite annoyed by the clarinet players stealing it. Poor things: so little is written for viola.
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I don't see anyone mentioning Benny Goodman. I only have jazz recordings by him, but he did play classical music also, and very well. I think that one well known composer wrote a piece dedicated to Goodman, and he played it.

By the way...An interestring CD is SIMAX PSC 1290 which is a performance of Mozart K622 with viola in place of clarinet as it was played for many years. I think this is the only such recording. It is available from www.arkivmusic.com, or from Simax directly in Norway. You won't find this one at Best Buy, or even the other domestic web vendors. This is a good quality recent recording made in September 2006.

In rummaging through my CDs last night I found a CD copy which I had labeled "Mozart Basoon Concerto". I played it, and what do you know....the same music that I have played on the clarinet and the viola. Sounds good on basoon. I guess Mozart would sound good on harmonica!