Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet Mládí Works by Janácek, Martinu And Reicha

Franz Danzi was not the creator of the wind quintet, which emerged out of various earlier forms of wind ensemble music and was crystallized by Beethoven Antoine Reicha. Danzi, an Italian-born associate of both Mozart and Beethoven, was inspired to take up the genre by the works of Reicha, which are a lot more Beethovenian in their harmonies and in their general level of seriousness. The nine wind quintets and three quintets for piano and winds recorded here are, in the main, genial and gentle works.

With 17 symphonies in his list of works, not to mention operas and concertos, it is easy to forget that Kalevi Aho also composes chamber music. He has in fact written some ten quintets alone, for various combinations of instrument. Two are ‘normal’ wind quintets and it is these that the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet (BPWQ) perform on the present disc. The ensemble came into contact with the Finnish composer’s Wind Quintet No. 1 in 2010, and was immediately struck by the qualities and challenges of the score. The composer himself has described the difficulties in writing for wind quintet, in terms of achieving a balanced and homogeneous sound and soft dynamics.

One or more of these 1995 thru 1997 recordings have been, and/or still are, available separately. NCA has conveniently and, it must be said, quite elegantly repackaged them in a handsomely appointed foldout set. The first disc in this set, the op. 56 quintets, was reviewed as far back as 10 years ago by John Bauman in 23:6 in all of three brief paragraphs. Franz Danzi, (1763-1826) an almost exact contemporary of Beethoven, perhaps deserves a bit more than that, but frankly, not a lot more. He got it in 31:3 from Steven E. Ritter who reviewed a three-CD BIS set of Danzi's complete wind quintets performed on modern instruments by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet that were recorded half-a-dozen years earlier than these NCA releases.

When Tora Augestad releases a musical portrait together with the Oslo Philharmonic, there’s nothing less than Kurt Weill, Marcus Paus, and Charles Ives on the menu. Augestad's repertoire for “Portraying Passion” takes the musical qualities of modernist, individualistic composers and places them squarely within the context of the 21st century.

Following their debut album, Belle Epoque, the Orsino Ensemble turns its attention to music from Bohemia. There is a strong tradition of Czech wind playing, and hence a wealth of great repertoire on which to draw. Antoine Reicha was a contemporary (and friend) of Beethoven. His E flat Quintet, published in 1817, demonstrates his harmonic ingenuity and talent for idiomatic instrumental writing.

Iiro Rantala takes us through a kaleidoscope of different sound worlds, bringing a virtuoso sense of flow, melodic richness, drama and wide-screen technicolor emotion: "Veneziana" is an enlivening and highly distinctive portrait of a city. One might call it programme music, but it is of a kind that only Iiro Rantala can write…where the listener, as in the winding streets of Venice, will find a new surprise behind every musical corner.

A few weeks before his 90th birthday the legendary American film composer John Williams conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time! The Tagesspiegel summed up the event as simply “one of those great evenings”. Regardless of whether Star Wars, Harry Potter or Indiana Jones, the symphonic Hollywood sounds on the stage of the Berliner Philharmoniker thrilled the audience right from the start. The soundtracks of John Williams are among the most popular in the history of film and have received numerous prestigious awards, including five Oscars, five Emmys, four Golden Globes and twenty-five Grammys.

This ground-breaking album is the first of its kind – devoted entirely to new music written for the woodwind orchestra. It features outstanding performances by the principal woodwind players of the Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Shea Lolin, and includes four world premiere recordings.