These five concertante works for bassoon make up a delightful and generous collection. Since 1974 Laurence Perkins has been principal bassoon of the Manchester Camerata‚ here buoyantly conducted by another leading wind player‚ the oboist Douglas Boyd. The Mozart Concerto‚ with which the disc opens‚ has often been dismissed as the trivial inspiration of an 18­year­old‚ but Gwydion Brooke with Beecham brought out deeper qualities as well as charm. Perkins and Boyd may not be quite so individual as those predecessors‚ but the cleanness of articulation and clarity of texture‚ with some influence from period practice in the string playing and with the horns braying prominently‚ make for a comparably winning performance. The slow movement‚ curiously marked Andante ma Adagio‚ brings a touching moment of repose before the playful elaborations of the Minuet finale. The Stamitz is equally successful‚ lighter and a shade clearer in texture than the rival ASV version with Nakanishi‚ elegant in the slow movement before the dashing‚ sharply focused account of the Presto finale. The two Weber concertante works bring similar qualities‚ with the brilliant Rondo ungarese and the rumbustious finale of the Concerto deliciously pointed. Klaus Thunemann on Philips disc may be even more brilliant at faster speeds‚ but he finds less fun in this light­hearted music‚ just as he is less tender in the Andante and the Adagio of the Concerto. Nakanishi with the London Mozart Players on the ASV Quicksilva disc offers a good alternative collection‚ with the Hummel Concerto in place of the Mozart‚ but the solo instrument is more backwardly balanced. The bonus offered by Perkins is the so­called Concertino of Michael Haydn which‚ as the soloist explains in his excellent note‚ is in effect the concertante slow movement of a Serenade‚ a charming piece‚ well worth performing on its own. The Hyperion sound is first­rate with textures a degree cleaner than on the rival discs I have listed. The Weber Concerto comes in a new edition specially prepared by the bassoonist and musicologist‚ William Waterhouse‚ ironing out generations of errors and inconsistencies in the parts. In all the concertos Perkins uses excellent‚ imaginative cadenzas of his own.