Beautiful piece indeed! Op.115 was the first time that a major composer wrote a clarinet quintet after Mozart's masterpiece. Talk about confidence in your work.
I second the recommendations of the Harold Wright and Reginal Kell recordings; however as far as the Kell goes I prefer his recording with the Fine Arts Quartet on Decca (DL9532), somewhat more poetic playing IMO. Yes, it is a mono recording, but very tonally natural. I don't know if it is available on CD.
My very favorite however is the Karl Leister recording with the Amadeus Quartet on DG (DG139354). Beautiful playing all the way around and I particularly like the way that the clarinet was recorded.
This is mostly, but not all, speculation on my part; but I suspect that Leister's style and approach to the instrument is closer to what Brahms heard in the playing of the great clarinetist Richard Muhlfeld that so impressed and inspired him to write the piece. As great as Wright and Kell were in their own right, they are each the product of different schools of clarinet playing; Kell the English school and Wright the American school. Obviously, this is not necessarily a handicap, but there are very important differences in each of those schools that can possibly give clues as to what exactly the composer had in mind when he conceived the work; details that get lost or forgotten over the generations of players. Even the instruments used are different; American and English clarinetists use the Boehm system clarinet, German players use the Albert system clarinets. A great composer always takes into account the idiocyncracies, strengths, and limitations of the instrument he is writing for, and that in turn can shape the composition; although in this case the technical differences between the instruments are relatively minor and not as important as the general differences in concept of tone production and phrasing that exist between German, American, and English clarinet players.
Happy Holidays
