Portraits – The Clarinet Album features concertos by Copland, Spohr and Cimarosa, plus arrangements of short pieces. Andreas Ottensamer is accompanied on the recording by the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a rising star in the Deutsche Grammophon firmament.

Portraits – The Clarinet Album takes us from the early-Romantic intensity of Spohr to the jazz inflections of Copland, and from the operatic gestures of Cimarosa to the poised serenity of Debussy. It includes a prelude by Gershwin, Debussy’s evocative La Fille aux cheveux de lin, and a Berceuse by Amy Beach, the first great female American composer.

In 2009 Ottensamer interrupted his liberal arts studies at Harvard University to become a scholar of the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. He is now principal clarinettist of the orchestra and is also a part-time model.