Soloists of Consortium Classicum, Academy of St Martin in the Fields/ Iona Brown EMI Classics 096 5032 (3 CDs)****

Think about it. If it weren’t for Mozart’s great Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, the genre of the sinfonia concertante would probably be a closed book to most music lovers. This pioneering survey, masterminded by clarinettist Dieter Klöcker and recorded for Electrola (EMI’s German branch) in 1976, comprises 10 works by nine composers (Crusell, Schneider, Danzi, Hoffmeister, Winter, Abel, Pleyel and Kozeluch). It mixes obvious combinations of multiple soloists (pairs of clarinets, pairs of bassoons) with altogether more varied line-ups, with Kozeluch offering the extreme choice of piano, mandolin, trumpet and double bass. The musical style reflects the fact that these pieces were written for virtuoso display, so there’s lots of delightful tootling and burbling, with frequent flights of flattering brilliance. See url.ie/57cs