Ligeti, Nielsen & Dvorak: Woodwind Quintets Ensemble Ouranos

• György Ligeti (1923 - 2006): Six Bagatelles for wind quintet:
• 1 I. Allegro con spirito 01:11
• 2 II. Rubato. Lamentoso 03:23
• 3 III. Allegro grazioso 02:21
• 4 IV. Presto ruvido 00:55
• 5 V. Adagio. Mesto 02:33
• 6 VI. Molto vivace. Capriccioso 01:27
• Carl Nielsen (1865 - 1931): Woodwind Quintet Op. 43:
• 7 I. Allegro ben moderato 08:37
• 8 II. Menuet 04:41
• 9 III. Praeludium - Tema con variazioni 12:26
• Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904): Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96:
• 10 I. Allegro ma non troppo (Arr. for Wind Quintet) 09:51
• 11 II. Lento (Arr. for Wind Quintet) 06:43
• 12 III. Molto vivace (Arr. for Wind Quintet) 02:27
• 13 IV. Finale. Vivace ma non troppo (Arr. for Wind Quintet) 05:14
• Total Runtime 01:01:49

Info zu Ligeti, Nielsen & Dvorak: Woodwind Quintets

In their first album, the Ensemble Ouranos celebrate the wind quintet, bringing a breath of fresh air to the form with a hint of nostalgia. Indeed, the common thread in the works of Ligeti, Nielsen and Dvorak is a strong influence from the folk material of each composer’s native country. Winners of the Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon, Ensemble Ouranos brilliantly represent the French school of wind instruments.

Ensemble Ouranos
Amaury Viduvier, clarinet

The Ensemble Ouranos
It's under the leadership of clarinetist Amaury Viduvier that five young soloists from the Paris Conservatory came together in 2014 to explore the exciting repertoire of the wind quintet.

Driven by their desire to place their instrumental virtuosity - rewarded by numerous international prizes - at the service of ensemble playing, the members of the quintet are rapidly multiplying high-level artistic collaborations and offering a resolutely personal interpretation of the great classics of the repertoire.

The Ouranos ensemble entered into residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation in September 2014. They have since been a privileged guest at numerous festivals in France and abroad, in which he collaborates with exceptional chamber musicians such as Renaud Capuçon, David Grimal, François Salque, Nicholas Angelich, Bertrand Chamayou, Robert Levin and the Hermès Quartet.

In 2017, the quintet achieved international recognition by winning 1st prize, the public prize, the Bullukian Foundation prize as well as the Internet users prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition. This victory allows the recording of a first disc for the NoMadMusic label, dedicated to the wind quintets of Ligeti, Nielsen and Dvorak, released in November 2018, unanimously acclaimed by critics and rewarded with the ResMusica key as well as the label "the choice of France Musique".

In 2019, the ensemble led a successful first international tour during which it performed in Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and in the process, won the First Prize and the prize for the best interpretation of the work commissioned in the Competition Carl Nielsen Chamber Music International from Copenhagen.

In 2020, the Ouranos ensemble became an associate artist of the Singer-Polignac Foundation, and recorded its second album dedicated to music for quintet and piano with Guillaume Vincent, released in 2021 by NoMadMusic.

Alongside its work as a quintet, the ensemble regularly brings together some of the best wind instrumentalists of their generation around its core to introduce the public to the great richness of music for wind ensembles.

Booklet für Ligeti, Nielsen & Dvorak: Woodwind Quintets