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Piano And Wind | Chandos CHAN10420

Piano And Wind

New Item

Label: Chandos

Cat No: CHAN10420

Barcode: 0095115142028

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 1st May 2007

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

About

All but one of the works on this recording owe something to a particular moment in music history. The ‘revolt’ in February 1879 by the wind players of the Société des concerts, the professional orchestra attached to the Paris Conservatoire, effectively challenged the string quartet as the dominant medium of chamber music in France, and put chamber music for winds firmly back on the map, encouraging a superb tradition of wind instrument playing.
 
As a result, generations of French composers wrote easily and naturally for the winds.  Poulenc, for example, called his Sextuor ‘a homage to the wind instruments which I have loved from the moment I began composing’.  Revised in 1939, it was performed in April 1940, and must have sounded very poignant during those first days of the Second World War, with its many-faceted moods, from high spirits and wit to the gentle melancholy which intervenes at the close of the boisterous finale. 
 
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Quintet, an early work, immediately strikes the listener as sounding unexpectedly French; it is thoroughly engaging and festive, and seems to have anticipated a style that would become the norm for wind chamber music.  Françaix’s light-hearted and urbanely enchanting suite L’Heure du berger is glorious fun for players and listeners alike, with echoes of Chabrier and Stravinsky.  Saint-Saëns’s Caprice sur des airs danois et russes intertwines simple, plaintive melodies to entertaining and enchanting effect, and is salon music of the finest quality. 
 
This charming new album from the Reykjavik Wind Quintet and the pianist Vovka Ashkenazy presents a delightful and varied programme of chamber music by French and Russian composers, and highlights the expert and exciting repertoire that was written for this unusual chamber ensemble formation.  
 
This collection of rarely recorded works for piano and wind are sure to delight the chamber music enthusiast. 

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