Jörg Widmann has performed Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with the Hagen Quartet ‘countless times’, according to the booklet. In 2009 the quartet commissioned him to compose a companion work for the same forces. He wrote 17 bars before giving up, abandoning his sketch ‘somewhere in the basement; I don’t know where, and I prefer not to know’. The weight of history, and especially of the quintets of Mozart and Brahms, became a burden, he admits. It was only eight years later, in 2017, that he finally completed his Clarinet Quintet, a near-40-minute Adagio.

Naturally the language is different, given the sonic leeway composers have now to exploit sounds, effects and techniques that would have had Mozart and Brahms fleeing for their sanity. Nevertheless, earlier musics remain ghostly presences as Widmann’s music breaks out into tonal resolutions or lingers over a reminiscence. Brahms, especially, is certainly there, and I fancy the shade of Mahler flits through fleetingly in places. The work compels on its own terms, and the authority of the performance cannot, of course, be doubted.

As for the Mozart, this is a well-lived-in reading, the shaping by the quartet by now intuitive, the reactions between string ensemble and reed soloist instinctive. Widmann’s tone ranges from a chalumeau purr to a clarino chime and he is matched every step of the way by the Hagen players. The gossamer scales in the Larghetto are breathtaking in their hushed stillness, while the Minuet and finale are ideally cheerful and bubbly.

The programme is certainly unusual, and perhaps not one for those who prefer their Mozart to be coupled with Brahms (or more Mozart). Only time will tell if Widmann’s Quintet establishes itself alongside them in the repertoire. But get it now, while it’s fresh: it’s well worth a listen.