Barber, S: Summer Music, Op. 31

This selection of chamber music by Samuel Barber (1910-1981) contains some of his most notable compositions. The youthful Cello Sonata of 1932; Excursions for piano from 1942-44 and the charming Summer Music for wind quintet, written in 1956, amply illustrate Barber's propensity to lyricism, making this a most appealing disc.

Chamber-music for woodwinds mainly took the form of Harmoniemusik in Europe up to the end of the eighteenth century. Often in serenade form, the "wind band" compositions served as court entertainment. The development of a middle-class musical culture created a demand for "sophisticated" chamber music for winds that could exist alongside the dominant string quartet.

The genre had its heyday in the late Classical and Romantic periods.

Pentaèdre plays great works by 20th century and living composers on this new recording that evokes summertime. The music chosen for this CD sounds playful, joyful and dance-like. Lussier’s Dos Tropicos makes heartfelt allusion to the habanera Cuban dance. Barber’s Summer Music belongs squarely in the tradition of the nocturne. Villa-Lobos’ Quintette was influenced by the music of Brazil.

If the wind quintet genre has its origins in the early 19th century, it was during the 20th that it came of age. The possibilities that the combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn offered in terms of sounds and musical character were exploited to the full by composers such as Carl Nielsen, Paul Hindemith and Darius Milhaud. Once the ensemble had become firmly established, it also became common practice to add instruments, or to vary the timbres in other ways. In his Septuor, Charles Kœchlin included not only an alto saxophone but also a cor anglais, the same instrument that Heitor Villa-Lobos replaced the (French) horn with in the Quintette en forme de Chôros. One of the most extreme cases in the literature, however, is Hans-Werner Henze's L'autunno 'for five players of wind instruments', in which each player is required to perform on almost all the related instruments in the family of his main instrument, resulting in an instrumentarium ranging from piccolo flute to Wagner tuba and contrabassoon. Together with three other compositions, Henze's autumnal piece has lent its name to the discs included in this box set, the others being Printemps by Henri Tomasi, Samuel Barber's Summer Music and Winter Songs, Brett Dean's settings of five poems by E. E. Cummings for tenor and wind quintet. Individually released by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet between 1992 and 2003, these four discs are here gathered into a full seasonal cycle: a catalogue of 20th-century music for wind quintet, performed by an ensemble that a reviewer in BBC Music Magazine has described as follows: ’Accustomed to working together with the world’s most gifted and demanding conductors, the five players distil all the discipline, versatility and musical characterisation that is demanded of them daily. They combine this with the mutual generosity and tangible sense of enjoyment of those just freed from the maestro’s yoke.’