Fenwick Smith (flute)
Keisuke Wakao (oboe)
Thomas Martin (clarinet)
Craig Nordstrom (clarinet)
Jonathan Menkis (horn)
Daniel Katzen (horn)
Richard Ranti (bassoon)
Roland Small (bassoon)
Hugh Hinton (piano)

Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Chamber music purely for wind ensemble was largely overlooked by Romantic composers, and as a result Carl Reinecke’s genial Sextet and Octet for wind loom rather large in a sparse landscape. They are substantial, handsomely crafted works in which Reinecke’s skill for scoring yields a sonority at once rich, noble and beautifully balanced. Reinecke’s cycle of sixteen pieces Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe, here arranged for flute and piano by Ernesto Köhler, is a homage to his contemporary Robert Schumann yet loses nothing of the composer’s originality and vitality.

“Reinecke in his writing is conservative but never bland or boring. Though he is never merely derivative‚ his style is best described as a cross between Mendelssohn and Brahms. Like Brahms he writes with particular warmth for the horn as well as the oboe….Consistently Reinecke comes up with memorable themes strongly developed and skilfully orchestrated”
Gramophone Magazine