One of the finest recordings in many a year of Mozart’s two great clarinet pieces. The superb Paul Dean , principal clarinettist of the Queensland Orchestra for 13 years, returns under the baton of rising star Guillaume Tourniaire for a reading of the concerto that has all the playfulness one could hope for, underwritten by a muscular technique and a firm sense of structural cohesion. For the quintet, Dean’s partners are former ASQ members The Grainger Quartet , in a reading both sportive and patrician. The recording and packaging are top-notch, even by the lofty standards Melba Recordings have established in recent years.