There is not an embarrassment of good records of these sonatas available at the moment; indeed there aren't many listed at all. RF liked the version by Janet Hilton and Peter Frankl (Chandos)—''intelligent, beautifully balanced and thoroughly enjoyable''—but when he was writing he was also able to refer to a ''more mesmeric'' performance by de Peyer and Barenboim. That was on HMV ASD2362 (5/68—nla) and for a long time a Gramophone ''Recommended Recording''. Karl Leister and Gerhard Oppitz are on a par with these artists: soloists of high calibre who know how to listen to each other and who are at home in chamber music. As an example of duo playing their record is second to none. As a presentation of these demanding sonatas it's also quite acceptable, but I wish it attempted more. I wish it were bolder in the pursuit of character and not just 'correct'. This is music of constant ariation, a flux of ideas and settings and developments, in which much is said, or suggested, in a short time. For me, the players don't explore enough of the light and shade. I like the clarinettist's liquid sound and long lines but regret his disinclination to be deflected from what is mellifluous and smooth. The pianist, a powerful player, does many commanding things but he fusses the opening of the F minor Sonata with unncessary rubato instead of heeding Brahms's indication to establish an allegro appassionatto; and I don't find his tempo convincing for the sostenuto middle section of the second movement of the E flat Sonata, a tempo oddly unrelated to the rest.
He plays a Bosendorfer—the recording was made in Vienna—which needs a better defined bass either from the player or the recording engineer, especially in the first movement on Side 1. The sound isn't bad but it isn't consistent—between movements one and two of the F minor Sonata, for instance.'