Both Eduard Brunner and Janet Hilton (Chandos) are outstanding clarinettists of striking sensibility, but where Janet Hilton's romanticism is soft-grained in outline, giving at times a musing almost improvisatory quality to slow sections of the music, Brunner is romantically bolder, more ardent, shaping the music's line more firmly. This is especially striking in the Romanza of the Second Concerto, but also apparent at the opening of the Concertino. Yet in the Adagio of the First Concerto, with its Weberian chorale on the horns, the effect is more subtle in the Bamberg recording with some lovely quiet horn playing to which Brunner makes a melting response. His articulation in fast running passages is lighter and smoother and at times less characterful than Janet Hilton's, and she gives that bit more humour to the jocular finales, especially the engaging Alla Polacca of No. 2. Yet Brunner is especially good in the last movement of the Concertino, conveying his enjoyment of the bravura.
It is very much a case of swings and round-abouts and both sets of performances are enjoyable in different ways. Where the Chandos issue scores is in the orchestral recording which is more open and better detailed; on the Bamberg version the orchestral textures are thicker. But on both discs the recording and balance of the solo instruments is very well managed.'