This is good. Very good. Not only does this disc offer an imaginative array of first-class wind music, the performances are well nigh ideal. Dvorák’s Serenade has just the right “outdoors” quality, a freshness of rhythm and, in the slow movement, a lyrical serenity that’s totally delightful. Better still, the recording captures the work perfectly: not so close that we’re serenaded by clicking valves and gasping musicians, not so far that the distinctive wind timbres congeal into a sonic fog. Better still, the horns are ideally balanced and integrated into the ensemble, rather than positioned as a trio of soloists in their own acoustic (as so often happens). Georges Enescu’s Dixtuor is an elusive masterwork, and the Oslo players clarify its complex but luminous textures by stressing the music’s gentle, bittersweet lyricism. I’ve never heard it sound so purposeful or so melodically appealing. As for “Youth”, Janácek’s 70th birthday present to himself–well, it sounds as buoyant and vivacious as its title, the crucial writing for low instruments (bassoon and bass clarinet) being captured with special vividness. This is a disc that you will want to listen to again and again, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. [3/22/2000]
