Antonín Dvořák / Leoš Janáček / George Enescu - Serenade; Mládí; Dixtuor

"The Wind Serenade dates from 1878, just two years before his sunny Sixth Symphony with which it shares many of its qualities. The work opens with a march suggesting all the pomp of the local village bands that Dvořák knew so well. This is followed by a Minuetto, a title that betrays the homage to the rococo wind serenade and to Mozart, although the piece owes as much to a triple time Bohemian folk-dance as it does to the classical court dance A flowing Andante makes up the third movement before the Allegro molto finale rounds off the work with a return to the opening theme. [...]

"If Dvořák's Serenade reflects the elegance of the rococo genre, then it is easy to see the influence of Bach in Enescu's Dixtuor. The three movements are scored for ten wind instruments as is the Dvořák but there is a more international feeling about the music despite a nod to the pipes of the composer's native Romania in the final part. The Dixtuor received its first performance in Paris in 1906. [...]

"One of the products of [Janáček's] genuinely new-found youth was the wind sextet Mládí (Youth) written for his own seventieth birthday in July 1924, only four years before his death, The piece is consciously based on the composer's own youth when he was a chorister in Brno and pupil of Pavel Křížkovský and in the third movement, Vivace, it quotes from his March of the Blue Boys. The Moravian folk melodies of the work's four movements come from the area of Janáček's birth and have a melodic quality not found in all of the composer's music. Beginning with an Allegro in Rondo form, there follows a slow movement theme and variations in D flat. Then comes the Blue Boys March with its echoes of the composer's own youth and finally the Allegro animato returns to the opening themes of the work." (David Doughty. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Oslo Philharmonic Wind Soloists

1. Antonín Dvořák - Serenade, Op. 44: Moderato, Quasi Marcia
2. Antonín Dvořák - Serenade, Op. 44: Minuetto
3. Antonín Dvořák - Serenade, Op. 44: Andante Con Moto
4. Antonín Dvořák - Serenade, Op. 44: Allegro Molto
5. George Enescu - Dixtuor, Op. 14: Doncement Mouvementé
6. George Enescu - Dixtuor, Op. 14: Modérément
7. George Enescu - Dixtuor, Op. 14: Allègrement, Mais Pas Trop Vif
8. Leoš Janáček - Mládí: Allegro
9. Leoš Janáček - Mládí: Andante Sostenuto
10. Leoš Janáček - Mládí: Vivace
11. Leoš Janáček - Mládí: Allegro Animato

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