SACDs - Tomasi, H F

This new Hybrid SACD recording features four members of the internationally renowned Afflatus (Wind) Quintet performing music by several French composers including Ibert, Bozza, Debussy, Gounod, Tomas, and Françaix. Afflatus Quartet derives from Afflatus (Wind) Quintet, the winner of one of the most prestigious chamber music competitions in the world, the International Music Competition of the ARD Munich 1997. With Radek Baborak, the world famous horn player and Afflatus member taking a "vacation" from the ensemble, the four remaining members, each of which is an active soloist throughout Europe and especially in Czech Republic, have produced an album of music by 20th century French composers. The disc includes Ibert’s ‘The Little White Donkey’, Deux Mouvements, and Cinq Pièces en Trio; Bozza’s Sonatine, and Trois Pièces pour une Musique de Nuit; Debussy’s ‘Golliwog’s Cakewalk’, and ‘The Little Shepherd’; Gounod’s ‘Funeral March of a Marionette, Tomasi’s Concert Champêtre; and Françaix’s Quartet for Wind Instruments.

One of the world’s foremost wind quintets meets one of today’s finest pianists in a work that many consider to be the best work for piano and winds: Poulenc’s Sextet, as well as works by other French composers.

The composer himself called it ‘a homage to the wind instruments which I have loved from the moment I began composing’, and its cheeky character, virtuosic drive and catchy melodies are typical of his other writing for wind instruments. Poulenc also supplied the piano with a crucial – and virtuosic – part, however, including jazzy elements typical of the period as well as emotional outbursts in the manner of Rachmaninov.

Stephen Hough and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet have enjoyed a long collaboration and the players of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – who began performing as a group more than 20 years ago – once again demonstrate their supreme ability as ensemble players.