Marie Boichard - Timbres (2023) Hi-Res

If 20th century French wind repertoire is so abundant it is partly thanks to the works commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire from composers of the time. Indeed, the most prominent composers used to write virtuoso and modern genre pieces, which were for the Conservatoire competition; an annual event that awarded prizes to students graduating from the institution and which allowed young instrumentalists to showcase their talents with this new repertoire.

Some of these pieces, written for the bassoon, have since become staples of the repertoire, such as Marcel Bitsch's Concertino or Hallucinations by Alain Bernaud. However, it is no exaggeration to say that a large number of these compositions have fallen into oblivion. Victims of the sheer number of works or of their difficulty of execution, few of them have survived the passage of time. We have therefore chosen to honour the rare jewels that are Fagottino by René Duclos or Portuguesa by Henri Büsser. All the more so because these works, not just their circumstances of composition and their competitive aspect, abound in particularities which render them of invaluable musical interest.

To complete this programme, we couldn't help ourselves from using the transcription Gabriel Fauré's famous and beautiful Sicilienne, composed before these competition pieces, and which was certainly a source of inspiration for many of the works played here.