Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet: Monday YouTube Fix

This is a live performance of Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet, Opus 43, played by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet.  This was performed on October 5, 2012 at the Samobor Music Festival in Croatia. The Performers:

Michael Hasel, Flute Andreas Wittmann, Oboe Walter Seyfarth, Clarinet Fergus McWilliam, Horn Marion Reinhard, Bassoon

The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet is everything I look for in a chamber ensemble.  Each member is playing every note like a soloist and yet the most important line or lines are always stepping to the foreground.

I instantly fell in love with the music of Carl Nielsen when I performed his Fifth Symphony at Tanglewood as a high school student.  He was a brilliant composer and his Wind Quintet is simply fantastic.

Enjoy!

Jean-Pierre Rampal - Flute: Monday YouTube Fix

This video is two hours of footage of Jean-Pierre Rampal performing live on Radio-Canada telecasts from 1956-1966.  He performs a wide range of music.  A lot of it features another brilliant French musician, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, on harpsichord. In the event you are not familiar with this legendary flutist, two things will immediately strike you: his tone and his phrasing.  Rampal is one of those musicians who makes everything sound both effortless and elegant.  He is one of the most famous instrumentalists of all time for good reason.

He performs works by Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Boccherini and Couperin.  I don't know how any musician could listen to this and not play more musically the next time they play their instrument.

Enjoy!