Stemming from the same fertile compositional period as the majority of his clarinet works, composer Carl Maria von Weber was also hard at work penning two symphonies (in fact, his only two forays into this genre) and his lone Concerto for bassoon and orchestra. Though written only a few short years after Beethoven's revolutionary Third Symphony, Weber seems little interested in innovation apart from his use of scherzos in place of minuets.

Mozart’s sole bassoon concerto dates from 1774. As the booklet points out, every bassoonist plays it at some time, and most seem to harbour an ambition to record it. I have come to regard the results as a very special test of a player’s musicianship. A technically proficient but dull performance will leave you wondering why you bothered to spend a quarter of an hour with such tedious music, whereas in the hands of a player with real imagination and energy it can be a most exhilarating experience.

This is a very nice recording of bassoon concertos by the Mozart of Paris, Francois Devienne. Eckart Huebner is a masterful player with a nice sound, good interpretation, great intonation, and brings out the musicality which occasionally lacks or is absent in Devienne recordings. His notes are well written and provide background with thoughts and conjecture concerning each of the concertos and the mysterious 2nd bassoon concerto of Mozart which has been attributed to Devienne.

It would be no exaggeration to name Antonio Vivaldi as the “pioneer of the bassoon concerto”. The first milestone in the emancipation of the bassoon, until the beginning of the 17 century exclusively used as a basso continuo instrument, for which the part wasn’t even written out, was a series of nine virtuoso bassoon sonatas published by Giovanni Antonio Bertoli in 1645.

Ensembles specializing in the French Baroque have been busy resurrecting music that's both of interest to specialists and a lot of fun for anybody discovering that much of this repertory makes good party music – just as it did when it was composed. Boismortier was a composer from Lorraine who went to Paris and made good by pleasing well-situated patrons with attractive, somewhat kaleidoscopic music that was well suited to the needs of the instrumentalists they employed. Included on the rather confusingly titled Boismortier: Sonates pour basses are pieces for low-register instruments – viola da gamba, cello, and bassoon, as well as several pieces of perhaps didactic nature, with unspecified and thus adaptable instrumentation.

Yes, this disc includes a rarity: a concerto for two bassoons! The bassoonists, Annika Wallin and Arne Nilsson, do a great job. So does the orchestra, the Umea Sinfonietta, from northern Sweden. Jan Vanhal's beautiful two-bassoon concerto is the key work on this disc. And for those who don't know who Vanhal was, well, he wrote plenty of music. In 1777, Mozart played the solo part in a concert performance of a Vanhal violin concerto. In 1784, Haydn, von Dittersdorf, Mozart, and Vanhal played some string quartets together at the home of composer Stephen Sorace (Haydn on first violin, Dittersdorf on second violin, and Vanhal on cello).

Canadian bassoonist George Zukerman is an artiste , a man whose agile command of this difficult instrument is apparent at his first entry in the Mozart concerto. His technique dazzles and his wonderfully sweet and lyrical tone is a perfect match for the cantabile style of the slow movements. Jörg Faerber and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra have been around for years, and even though the period-instrument movement has encroached upon much of their turf, the 30-year-old-plus playing isn’t dated and can stand comparison with the best now available.

The only out-and-out solo piece is Weber's Andante and Hungarian Rondo… Skinner makes a beautiful sound in the expressive Andante, and hurtles effectively through the virtuoso coda… even if you're not particularly a bassoon buff you'll find this a very enjoyable programme

Graupner is best known as a composer of cantatas but this CD highlights his compositions in other genres. Ensemble il capriccio plays on replicas of historical instruments and here presents four bassoon concertos, a double concerto for bassoon and chalumeau, as well as Graupner’s only violin concerto in what are mostly world premeiere recordings.