‘On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse – bassoons and basset-horns – like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly – high above it – an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I’d never heard.’ When I first saw Miloš Forman’s film of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus as a teenage clarinettist, Salieri’s description of the Adagio from Mozart’s Gran Partita, accompanied by such serene music, opened my ears to Mozart’s wind music. Perhaps it unconsciously inspired me to later take up the instrument.

For most clarinettists, Mozart is our god. Brahms and Weber complete the holy trinity, but Mozart remains at the top. Just imagine where the clarinet would (or wouldn’t) have gone if it weren’t for Wolfgang Amadeus and his muse, Anton Stadler. The Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet are central works of the repertoire, but there’s the Kegelstatt Trio and the Quintet for piano and winds, as well as a host of Harmoniemusik – serenades and divertimentos for wind ensembles.

It’s with three of these serenades – including that famous Gran Partita – that Nicolas Baldeyrou, principal clarinet of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, opens his project to record all of Mozart’s chamber and concertante music for clarinet for Alpha. Some of his orchestral colleagues – Hélène Devilleneuve (oboe), Yann Dubost (double bass), Antoine Dreyfuss and Hugues Viallon (horns) – join him, playing on period instruments along with other luminaries from the Parisian musical scene: Alexandre Chabod is principal clarinet with the Opéra de Paris; rising star oboist Gabriel Pidoux already features on three Alpha albums, including a solo disc.

The Serenades in E flat (K375) and C minor (K388) are for pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons and the focus is on harmonious blending, the only notable solo opportunities going to the first oboe and clarinet. Baldeyrou’s soft, bosky tone is a constant joy; Pidoux’s oboe has a citrussy tang, distinctive though not perhaps to all tastes.

Both feature the occasional graceful ornamentation on repeats (strangely, the first repeat in the opening Allegro of K388 is taken, but not the second) and Baldeyrou directs performances that maintain a clear sense of momentum. Minuets have one-in-a-bar swing; K388’s Trio, a pastoral canon for just oboes and bassoons, is a charmer. In K375’s Adagio, we’re very much in the garden as night falls, Mozart foreshadowing Act 4 of Figaro. It’s beautifully played here. Both closing Allegros zip along in bucolic high spirits.

The Serenade in B flat, K361 – the Gran Partita – is on a different scale. In seven movements, lasting around 50 minutes, it is scored for 13 instruments (the 13th is a double bass), its richer textures woven with a pair of basset-horns plus two extra horns. It receives an excellent performance here. Once the Molto allegro in the opening movement kicks in, it has a vibrant spring in its step. Baldeyrou strikes a stately tempo for both the Minuets, giving a courtly feel. The first Trio of the second-movement Minuet uses only clarinets and basset-horns, a snuggly, fireside combination particularly toasty here. The Romanze is allowed room to breathe; the bassoons bustling along its central Allegretto section provide an effective contrast. There are delicious decorations in the Theme and Variations and the Molto allegro finale is a sheer joy, jaunty bassoon riffs and Pidoux’s garrulous oboe adding to the merriment.

At 4'53", the Adagio feels too rushed – it would even feel swift for an Andante – reinforcing Shaffer’s ‘rusty squeezebox’ description. It’s the only real miscalculation in this recording, but is elegantly played and shouldn’t deter readers from exploring this quite marvellous first release in what could be a promising series.