Martinů, Nielsen & Koechlin: Serenade

The central figures of the CD are two colleagues from the Berliner Philharmoniker - first horn Radek Baborák and first clarinet Wenzel Fuchs. On this recording, accompanied by the members of Baborak Ensemble, they present themselves both as phenomenal soloists without technical limits and as experienced chamber players. In a novel dramaturgy, they introduce lesser known and rarely recordedworks (Koechlin), alongside compositions performed more frequently. The first group includes Les Confidences ("Les Confidences d'un Joueur de Clarinette") by the French composer Charles Koechlin, whose oeuvre is synonymous with film music of the first half of the 20th century. (In the case of Les Confidences, he also wrote the script for the film.) Martinů's Quartet, fromhis Paris period, and the more neo-classicist Serenade are splendid works yet - owing to their non-traditional configuration - to our detriment have only appeared on stages and been recorded sporadically. Nielsen's pieces, together with the "encore" miniature by Luciano Berio, round off this very pleasant mosaic of encounters between horn and clarinet in 20th-century works.