Concertante! (2018)

Many listeners have heard the two sinfonie concertante of Mozart, one of them heard here, and the single instance by Haydn. But these composers worked within a tradition of such works -- concertos for multiple instruments and orchestra -- that has been little explored by performers. The tradition was centered in the cities of Mannheim and Paris, both major musical centers in the Classical era but devalued by historians who accepted the notion of Viennese primacy. If Les Vents Français (actually a multinational group who ... Read More

Many listeners have heard the two sinfonie concertante of Mozart, one of them heard here, and the single instance by Haydn. But these composers worked within a tradition of such works -- concertos for multiple instruments and orchestra -- that has been little explored by performers. The tradition was centered in the cities of Mannheim and Paris, both major musical centers in the Classical era but devalued by historians who accepted the notion of Viennese primacy. If Les Vents Français (actually a multinational group who shared membership in the Berlin Philharmonic wind section) had simply given an airing to some works in the genre other than Mozart's and Haydn's, the music here would have been worth your time. They are quite a varied lot: the one by Pleyel is very much in the vein of Haydn's sole example; the pair by Franz Danzi are broad, post-classical pieces with some harmonic originality; and the work by François Devienne, a professor of winds in Paris, naturally enough contains attractive writing... Read Less