Brunner is a clarinettist of true romantic temper, and these are both very attractive, original performances. In Mozart (he uses, by the way, a modern clarinet, not a basset) he plays with a warm, intense tone and with firm rhythm, but especially during the development of the first movement, when Mozart suggests dark tensions not implied by the opening music, he and the quartet respond with a slight nervous quickening of tempo and a sharpening of the attack. It is very musical, and very effective. They take the Larghetto at an easy, flowing tempo, which seems to me much more successful than the manner adopted by clarinettists who attempt to suck the last drop of expression out of the music by playing the movement Adagio or Largo. The Minuet is lively, and when necessary Brunner conceals himself sensitively within the textures.
Weber's Quintet suits him no less well. It is a very different kind of work, deriving from Parisian rather than Viennese tradition with the soloist very much the leader in concertante manner. Brunner adopts a slightly brighter tone-colour for the most part (though he and the players do splendidly with the tongue-in-cheek little Freischutz shudder in the finale). He has nimble fingers which he needs not only for the forceful and delicate chromatic scales in the slow movement (a speciality of Baermann, Weber's clarinettist), but in the fireworks music at the end. This, and some of the passagework in the minuet, is tricky: Brunner takes the music at a fearless tempo, and brings it all off.
The couplings of the comparative versions shown above are highly varied. Thea King on Hyperion uses a basset clarinet for the Quintet and also for the excellent performance she gives of the Concerto with the ECO and Jeffrey Tate. Keith Puddy on Pickwick (mid price) gives a nice performance of the Quintet—relaxed and amiable with as coupling a sparkling version by Douglas Boyd of the Oboe Quartet. Karl Leister's Orfeo/Harmonia Mundi performance is, as one would expect from this fine artist, sensitive inward and intelligent; his coupling is Crusell's Clarinet Quintet. All four are outstanding performances of Mozart's work, and really choice can be decided (apart from the basset clarinet issue) by personal preference for the artist or by coupling. The new record is certainly worthy of inclusion among these top recommendations and a great delight.'