Clarinet Music on vinyl or CDs

Meyer's playing IS very impressive, but I actually find the tone a little too round for my taste. I recently found an oddball lp which you might look for.

Here's a relatively obscure one for you. A wonderful version (IMO) of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A which is on lp only:

--- "The Midsummer Mozart Festival Orchestra" conducted by George Cleve, Sonic Arts Lab Series 22, clarinet played by Mark Brandenburg.

This was a live digital recording from 1981, so I wasn't expecting much of it, but was quite surprised and love the performance. It's not easy to come by, but I did a Google on it and found one available in not perfect, but probably very acceptable condition:
http://www.scatrecords.com/cgi-bin/shopper.exe?keywords=wind&search=action

(A local friend used to have a few sealed copies, and I could ask whether he still has them and if so, if he's interested in selling one. You can email me directly through A'gon if you'd like me to check.)

Also, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the old Westminster mono recordings of the Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet with Leopold Wlach playing clarinet. They're fantastic performances with a very nostalgic, warm sound quality. The first pressing lp's (which is what I'd recommend) also tend to go for fairly good $$$ accordingly.

As far as jazz, in a vein that a classical buff might enjoy, look for anything featuring Eiji Kitamura - very nice playing of very enjoyable music.

I can't believe it - I ran into that friend I mentioned this AM (which happens about once every 3 months), had coffee with him - and totally forgot to ask whether he had any copies left. I'M A MEATHEAD!!! I'll call him tonight and check.

With all due respect, as everyone has different ears and different equipment - I also had the K581 lp and got rid of it because I found it to be a totally lackluster performance and just an OK recording.

Oops! -
I didn't read the previous post carefully and didn't have time to write much detail as I was rushing out of the house for an appointment.

The lp which didn't impress me was the "K622" (Clarinet Concerto) produced (and hyped) by John Atkinson of Stereophile. I have not heard the K581, so can't say anything about that one.

My experience with K622 is the Vinyl, which was mastered from a discrete tape recording of the same performance, so possibly the SACD is better sonically - though I doubt it. My main beef is with the performance(s) anyway. I pretty much came to the opinion that Michaelson is a very good amateur player who happens to own Musical Fidelity, and has the resources to issue, and the industry friends to promote, his own vanity recordings. The playing is relatively faultless, but not of the interpretive level of a Stoltzman, Meyer, Drucker, Kell, Wlach, etc. There are HUNDREDS of working, real PROFESSIONAL clarinetists playing worldwide, and there's a reason only a handful have recording contracts - it ain't that easy to rise to the highest artistic levels (and/or they're not biggies in the Audio Industry).

Overly conservative conducting probably played a large part, too. The whole thing was so flat - I tried a number of times to change my attitude (since it's a nice package and I really wanted to justify keeping it), but I was not once able to listen through the whole disc due to boredom. I just saw no reason to keep this lp.

Anyway, that's my opinion on K622 - Since Audphile1 is a clarinet player himself, it would be interesting to hear his take if he has heard any of the Michaelson issues.

Here's a unique one - I just picked up this independent, clarinet-centric LP at a library sale yesterday and very much like it. It's "modern" classical, but NOT modern in the form of random, irritable screeching. I'd call it "Mostly Melodic Modern". If you're into clarinet especially, it's enjoyable and unique listening IMO:

Richard Wilson (composer) approx. 1986- on the Opus 1 label, recording quality is excellent to audiophile. There's no actual album title, but tracks are:

Side 1
Line Drawings - clarinet duo
Gnomics - clarinet, oboe, flute

Side 2
Dithyramb - clarinet, oboe
Serenade - clarinet, viola, double bass

Clarinetist on all 4 pieces is Larry Guy, who has been Principal with the Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Paul Taylor Dance Company.

You can LISTEN to a very long clip (might be the whole piece actually) of "Gnomics" here :
http://www.peermusicclassical.com/composer/composerdetail.cfm?detail=wilsonaudio

You can read quite a bit about Wilson here:
http://www.peermusicclassical.com/composer/composerdetail.cfm?detail=wilsonessay

There are a couple of these on Ebay currently with Buy It Now's.