It was the 18th-century Mannheimers that put the clarinet on the map and inspired Mozart to mine the full expressive potential of this beautiful latecomer to the woodwind family. The Berlin Philharmonic’s principal clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer – now signed exclusively to Decca – and friends here celebrate three generations of composers associated with the elite Mannheim Orchestra, admiringly dubbed ‘an army of generals’ by the music historian Charles Burney.

Don’t expect revelations in the three concertos on this disc, one each by Stamitz father and son, plus a concertino for clarinet and cor anglais (arranged from the original for clarinet and bassoon) from c1815 by Franz Danzi. By Mozartian standards – impossible to suppress with Classical works for clarinet – the melodic and harmonic invention can be gracefully predictable, the range of expression circumscribed. There are no must-keep tunes. But all three concertos, neatly crafted and expertly written for the clarinet, offer gentle pleasures. Best, I think, is the Danzi, harmonically more enterprising than the two Stamitz works, as you’d expect from its date, with a beguiling slow movement that sounds like a bel canto duet reimagined for woodwind. The Carl Stamitz concerto from the mid-1770s is the most superficially Mozartian music here, with its elegant chromaticisms and sighing appoggiaturas – though its contredanse finale fails to locate the fine line between rustic jollity and banal repetitiveness. Danzi is also represented courtesy of frolicking variations on the popular hit from Don Giovanni, which end up by transforming the tune into a whooping polonaise.

While period instruments would have brought a sharper, more pungent tang to the sonorities, it would be hard to imagine classier performances than these. With his velvet, sensuous tone and minute control of dynamics, Ottensamer surely has few peers among today’s clarinettists. In both Stamitz concertos and the Danzi Mozart variations, his refinement of phrasing and subtle dynamic shading is allied to a sense of fun and fantasy, not least in his improvised lead-ins and cadenzas. He and the alert Potsdam band ensure that rhythms are kept light and supple. His Berlin colleagues Emmanuel Pahud and Albrecht Mayer match him all the way in finesse, with Pahud and Ottensamer providing luxury duetting in two modestly entertaining Mozart opera arrangements. A perfect disc for any clarinet lover who fancies 70 minutes of mellifluous, tension-free listening.