This first volume of Mozart's complete works with clarinet, recorded on period instruments, presents the three great serenades for winds that Mozart wrote in Vienna in the early 1780s, when wind ensembles ('Harmonie') became fashionable at the imperial court and among the nobility. The Serenade No. 11 in E flat major, K.375 combines Viennese elegance with virtuosity, while the Serenade No. 12 in C minor, K.388 goes far beyond light entertainment with its formal rigour and serious, almost tragic mood. The two-disc set culminates in the Gran Partita, K.361 for thirteen instruments – with basset horns and double bass enriching the bass – a work of symphonic scale often likened to an imaginary opera. Clarinettist Nicolas Baldeyrou, a winner of the ARD Munich competition whose historically informed approach was shaped by encounters with Harnoncourt and Norrington, leads his own ensemble of leading French soloists on clarinets, oboes, basset horns, bassoons and natural horns. Their period instruments bring out the varied colours, vocal phrasing and sharp contrasts at the heart of Mozart's writing for winds.