Nordic Music for Wind Quintet

The Reykjavik Wind Quintet performs four gorgeous and rarely recorded works for wind quintet.

These melodic quintets are rarely recorded – there are no alternative recordings of the Rasmussen Quintet or Hallgrimsson’s Intarsia and only one other recording currently available of the Larsson.

This recording couples the works of the less well known Icelandic composer Hallgrimsson, Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson and Dane Peter Rasmussen with a masterpiece of the foremost Danish composer of his time, Carl Nielsen.

This is the third disc from the Reykjavik Wind Quintet on Chandos – the previous two releases achieved excellent reviews.

Peter Rasmussen was quite a well-known personality in contemporary Danish musical life; he was organist at one of the central churches in Copenhagen and taught at various music schools in the city. He also composed, but very little was published. He was a keen French horn player and it seems likely that he took part in performances of wind quintets from the classical period and probably wanted to compose something as entertaining to perform. The score, bearing the finishing date of 26 March 1896, combines good workmanship and a very nice sense of humour within a completely classical musical frame.

The seeds of Nielsen’s Quintet were sown in January 1921 when he heard friends rehearsing a Mozart quintet. It received its first – private – performance on 30 April 1922 and its first Public performance on 9 October the same year in Copenhagen. Nielsen described it as a work in which he had sought to depict each instrument’s specific character. The three-movement work concludes with a Prelude followed by a set of variations on a theme expanded from one of Nielsen’s own hymns.

In his Divertimento for wind quintet, Quattro tempi, Larsson presents vivid, firmly tonal sketches of the four seasons, written in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Society of Swedish Composers in 1968.

Hallgrímsson was born in Iceland but after studying music in London he eventually made his home in Edinburgh. His Intarsia was originally known as Eight Pieces for Wind Quintet which first performed on 23 April 1991 but revised the following year when their number was cut down to five movements, and the work given its present title, a term borrowed from knitting, where it refers to complex, and often colourful patterns being integrated into a larger framework.

‘…thoroughly entertaining disc, beautifully recorded and impressively performed.’

Fanfare on CHAN 9362 (French Wind Music)

‘…this is lovely playing from the Icelandic group…’

Classic CD on CHAN 9174 (Barber etc.)

‘An enjoyable and recommendable disc’.

BBC Music Magazine

‘Although the Neilsen is the longest (27 minutes) and best-known composition, each of the others is a masterpiece in its own right, and, with excellent performance and splendid sound, this constitutes a very fine disc indeed.’

Fanfare

‘This recording is one of the finest, maybe the finest the work [Neilsen] has ever had…’

American Record Guide

‘Elegant, crisp playing from this accomplished Icelandic ensemble.’

Penguin Guide Yearbook on CHAN 9362 (French Wind Music)

*****

H Erlston

*****

T Lynch

Nordic Music for Wind Quintet

Reykjavík Wind Quintet

Langholtskirkja, Reykjavik

Chris Hazell

Halldór Vikingsson

Woodwind

Nordic Music for Wind Quintet

PETER RASMUSSEN

Quintet in F major for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon

LARS-ERIK LARSSON

Quattro tempi, Op. 55

CARL NIELSEN

Quintet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon, Op. 43 (FS 100)

HAFLIDI HALLGRIMSSON

Intarsia