The 15th piece of “Kusatsu Music Archive” is Mozart’s Larghetto from clarinet quintet K.581. Karl Leister plays the clarinet with Panocha Quartet.
The great Clarinet player Karl Leister has visited Kusatsu 10 times since 1982, and Panocha Quartet has served as the resident quartet of the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy & Festival for over 20 years since 1998. The piece is the clarinet quintet which they have performed so many times, but this performance on this day in 2009 was something special. Karl Leister was supposed to perform with the world-renowned soprano Hildegard Behrens, but she passed away on the way to Kusatsu. The concert was rearranged as a memorial concert for her, and the Mozart’s Larghetto deeply touched the hearts of the musicians and the audiences.