Paul Hindemith's Kleine Kammermusik, his only contribution to the wind quintet genre, was composed rapidly over five consecutive days in May 1922.
Compositional Technique
György Ligeti's Sechs Bagatellen are based on his solo piano work Musica ricercata, where each movement uses a different, restricted number of the twelve notes.
Composition History
Leoš Janáček's Mládí (Youth) was composed in three weeks in July 1924, after he was impressed by Roussel's Divertissement for wind quintet and piano at a festival.
Composer Biography
György Ligeti kept his Sechs Bagatellen in reserve for sixteen years because they were considered too adventurous for post-Stalinist Budapest and too tame for post-serialist Cologne.
Composition History
Carl Nielsen's Quintet was inspired by a telephone call where he overheard his friend's wind-playing colleagues rehearsing a Mozart Sinfonia concertante.
Historical Context
The wind quintet genre, though dating back to Beethoven's contemporaries Anton Reicha and Franz Danzi, saw few examples for a century until the works by Hindemith, Nielsen, and Janáček featured on this album.
Performer Biography
London Winds, founded in 1988 by British clarinettist Michael Collins, is renowned for its interpretative vision and has premiered works by composers like John McCabe and Robin Holloway.
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