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Thursday, August 23, 2018

André Caplet - Works for Winds (Ensemble Initium)


Information

Composer: André Caplet
  • (01) Suite persane
  • (04) Rêverie
  • (05) Petite Valse
  • (06) Légende
  • (07) Quintette, pour vents et piano

Ensemble Initium
Édouard Sabo & Julien Vern, flutes
Guillaume Deshayes, Armel Descotte & Hélène Gueuret, oboes
François Lemoine & François Tissot, clarinets
Stéphane Bridoux & Julien Desplanque, french horns
Batiste Arcaix & Frank Sibold, bassoons
Cédric Carcelès, saxophone
Yann Dubost, double bass

Laurent Wagschal, piano

Ardeo Quartet
Carole Petitdemange, violin
Olivia Hughes, violin
Lea Boesch, viola
Joëlle Martinez, cello

Date: 2012
Label: Timpani
http://timpani-records.com/1c1202.php


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Review

Caplet usually manages to spring surprises and in the field of his wind writing things are no different. It seems strange that Suite persane, though written in 1901, should have had to wait until 1988 for its publication; strange but hardly unique. There is, in parts of this work, a really striking ‘oriental modality’ - the booklet writer’s apposite and concise phrase - that compels rapt attention. Written for a dixtet - 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns - the work is performed from time to time, but far more often, inevitably, in Francophone countries. This is a real loss for everyone else as the solemn intensity of the first of the three movements is affecting, and Caplet’s beautifully mellifluous writing in the central movement is richly harmonised. The incident where the horn line is subject to the decorative curl of supporting winds is highly distinctive. And the flute theme in E minor is the same one Granville Bantock took for his Omar Khayyam. Extrovert colour and plenty of incident, propelled by a vivacious rhythmic drive, animates the finale. This beautiful piece deserves listeners.

The Wind Quintet is a very slightly earlier work but stylistically it inhabits a very much more ordered and conventional sound world. The manner here is Caplet’s late-Romanticism, though here and there small hints of his more dextrous and elfin writing are to be encountered. The slow movement is dominated by the melancholy that’s launched by the clarinet. Caplet ensures that though the writing is rich, it never becomes clotted. The scherzo is appositely light-hearted, the finale more straight-forwardly determined.

The Two Pieces for flute and piano were published in 1897, and dedicated to that giant of French flute playing Georges Barrère by whom they were first performed in 1900 with the composer at the piano. There’s an attractively veiled sadness to the Rêverie and a frolicsome waltz to conclude. The Légende was composed in 1904 and sounds somewhat Debussyan. It was written for solo saxophone and orchestral forces but is here performed as a nonet. The thematic material is strong and the array of colours and strong rhythmic devices evoked significant. The moods are fluid, and changeable, with the warm slow section toward the end a particular highlight.

Two recording locations were used in the performances - the Suite persane was taped at IRCAM in Paris - but one really wouldn’t be able to tell. Performances are uniformly fine and sensitive. The highlight of the disc is the Suite persane.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

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André Caplet (23 November 1878 – 22 April 1925) was a French composer and conductor. He exhibited an unusual talent and originality during his musical education, and won the Prix de Rome in 1901 ahead of Maurice Ravel. Caplet was a close friend of Claude Debussy; his orchestration of Debussy's Clair de lune from the Suite bergamasque is probably the most widely performed and recorded example of his work. Caplet was also a composer in his own right, whose works have been overlooked for the most part in the modern repertoire. As a conductor, Caplet served as conductor of the Boston Opera from 1910 to 1914.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Caplet

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Founded in 2005 at the Paris Conservatory in the chamber music class of Maurice Bourgue, the Ensemble Initium is above all a wind octet of young professional musicians who furthered the practice of their instruments with the best present-day representatives of the French schools of woodwind and brass, including Jacques Tys, Pascal Moragues, André Cazalet, Marc Trenel, Gilbert Audin, Daniel and Michel Arrignon. The ensemble recorded for Timpani chamber music of George Inslow, Albéric Magnard, Charles Koechlin, Jacques Ibert, Reynaldo Hahn and André Caplet.

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FLAC, tracks
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Enjoy!

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Links caidos. Renovar.
    Muchas gracias.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hello, can you please reupload this wonderful music? Thanks.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. POR FAVOR SUBA ESTE ALBUM, ESTÁ CAIDO, POR FAVOR!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Choose one link, copy and paste it to your browser's address bar, wait a few seconds (you may need to click 'Continue' first), then click 'Free Access with Ads' / 'Get link'. Complete the steps / captchas if require.
    Guide for Linkvertise: 'Free Access with Ads' --> 'Get [Album name]' --> 'I'm interested' --> 'Explore Website / Learn more' --> close the newly open tab/window, then wait for a few seconds --> 'Get [Album name]'

    https://link-target.net/610926/caplet-winds
    or
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    or
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    ReplyDelete