The first sound heard in the Concerto for Two Clarinets & Orchestra by Antonio Cartellieri (1772-1807) is a loud timpani roll that you could mistake for the opening of a Haydn symphony. This striking effect sets the stage for a Haydnesque allegro with Beethovenian accents, quite different from the wind concertos of Mozart and his contemporaries. But then Cartellieri had a reputation as an innovator (at a time in Europe when performers and the general public were suspicious of innovations) who made use of the latest advances in clarinet technology for his concertos. The solo writing is highly virtuosic (though the two clarinets often play in unison, or in thirds) and its challenges are fully met by Dieter Klöcker and Sandra Arnold.

The short-lived Casimir Cartellieri was definitely a composer of note and this is amply demonstrated in this comprising three clarinet quartets. Dieter Klocker is a comfortable exponent of the many beautiful melodies that are found embedded in the music, very Mozartian in nature and which dances along at a pretty pace!

When Beethoven introduced himself to the Viennese public, playing his own First Piano Concerto in 1795, the other works in the concert were the first half of this oratorio and a symphony by the same composer, who in the following year was appointed Director of Music at the court of Prince Lobkowitz. Antonio Cartellieri, although his father was an Italian, was born in Danzig in 1772, which makes him a fairly close contemporary of Beethoven's. Abandoned at 13 by his parents after their divorce he must have had sufficient talent to attract aristocratic patronage, which enabled him to study in Vienna with Salieri and Albrechtsberger. He died, however, at 35, and until now not even scholars researching Beethoven's early career seem to have taken any interest in him.