Sharon Kam's The Romantic Clarinet should assure pianists and violinists that they indeed have the best of the best when it comes to 19th century repertoire.
Kam's collection of concert works by Rietz, Bruch and Weber is no match for couplings of Schumann, Liszt, Chopin and Mendelssohn.
Thatbeing acknowledged, the Israeli clarinetist is the epitome of elegance in her playing, confirming the promise of last year's prize-winning Works for Clarinet and Orchestra.
Once again, her husband, Gregor Buhl, gets some fine playing from the Sinfonia Varsovia and Berlin Classics has given them a showcase recording.
While I must admit to deriving surreptitious pleasure from the tizzy frolics in the finale of Julius Rietz's G minor concerto, earlier movements of the piece strike me as rather prosaic.
Max Bruch's Concerto for Clarinet and Viola is a little meatier, with the opening Andante con moto inspiring some well-turned dialogue between Kam and her young brother Ori. The Finale, alas, is a note-spinner if ever there was.
It is difficult to be too severe with Weber and his rather jolly Clarinet Quintet.
This work completes the line-up, with Kam in an orchestral rather than a chamber setting.
The soloist gives it her considerable best, with loads of clear, luscious tone, streaking up and down her instrument with breathtaking virtuosity.
Only in the bubbling Rondo does one pine to hear just four instruments behind her.
More solid musical fare comes with a new Hyperion collection of the Takacs Quartet and Stephen Hough playing Brahms.
You cannot avoid the sense of rugged power and the tersest of emotions when the musicians set off on the F minor Piano Quintet.
With unnerving precision, and Brahms benefiting from sprinklings of Hough glitter, the concentration is held through to the stealth and surge of the Finale.
Paired with the Quintet is Brahms' Quartet Opus 51 No 2. Hyperion has lavished some care here, catching the full dynamic range of a performance that is as elusive and delicate in the third movement Minuet as it is resolute in its stirring Finale.
* Sharon Kam, The Romantic Clarinet (Berlin Classics 1620);
* Takacs Quartet plays Brahms (Hyperion CD A67551), both through Ode Records
