Swiss Orchestra Wind Soloists

Beethoven would surely have been sceptical. His First Symphony, arranged for wind ensemble instead of large orchestra, with 10 musicians instead of 40, and no conductor? The Master had a number of derogatory terms for arrangements of his works: they were “canned [fodder], ragout, fricassee” with which “pie makers” – by which he meant unauthorised arrangers – made their money. But it was not just publishers who profited from the sale of arrangements. Beethoven’s works reached a far bigger public thanks to the broad distribution of popular arrangements for domestic use than they did in their original, orchestral versions. Today, of course, a full symphony orchestra has no problem fitting onto the Andermatt podium. But why shouldn’t we, too, have recourse to the old traditions of the “pie makers” and listen to Beethoven’s Symphony in a chamber version? Ten musicians from the Swiss Orchestra here conjure up a very special version of this work, using just the sound of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. The results might even have convinced the critical Master himself.

Charles Gounod, by contrast, deliberately opted for an all-wind ensemble when he wrote his “Petite symphonie pour vents”. The flute is the “secret” solo instrument in this work. This emphasis on the flute was a token of Gounod’s thanks to his friend Paul Taffanel, the outstanding French flautist of his day and the founder of the “Sociéte des Instruments à Vent”, the Society of Wind Instruments. It was Taffanel who commissioned the “Petite symphonie”, and its world première (in which he featured) helped to popularise this particular combination of wind instruments, as did his many other first performances of similarly scored works. Taffanel also arranged for a performance of Joachim Raff’s “Sinfonietta” in 1881 at a concert of his “Sociéte”. This was Raff’s sole work for an ensemble comprising only wind instruments, because his sudden death in 1882 meant that a new commission from Taffanel could no longer be realised. Even today, new chamber music for this particular formation is still being composed – thus our concert opens with the world première of “Souvenir d’Andermatt”, composed by Frederic Sánchez.

SWISS ORCHESTRA WIND SOLOISTS:
ANNE-LISE TERUEL & FREDERIC SÁNCHEZ, flute
KELSEY MAIORANO & YUTA ONOUCHI, oboe
LIONEL ANDREY & GABOR HORVATH, clarinet
OSCAR SOUTO SALGADO & ALEJANDRO CELA CAMBA, horn
JOSÉ JAVIER ROMERO & DANIEL MOTA, bassoon

FREDERIC SÁNCHEZ (*1987)
Souvenir d’Andermatt (world première)

LUDWIGVAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Symphony No. 1 in C major op. 21

CHARLESGOUNOD (1818–1893)
Petite Symphonie pour vents

JOACHIMRAFF (1822–1882)
Sinfonietta for ten wind instruments op. 188