Charles Koechlin: Wind Septet, Op. 165 (1937)

00:00 - I. Monodie: Tranquille mais sans traîner
02:46 - II. Pastorale: Tranquille et clair
06:52 - III. Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto
08:45 - IV. Fugue: Allegretto dolce
10:35 - V. Sérénité: Calme, trés doux
14:25 - VI. Fugue: Allegro, animé
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Ensemble: Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, and
Alto Saxophone: Manfred Preis
Cor Anglais/English Horn: Gerhard Stempnik
Year of Recording: 1992
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"In an autobiographical study penned in 1939, Koechlin wrote in the third person, as if his wife, Suzanne, were narrating, "He often told me, as regards famous composers, that the work should not be separated from the artist who creates it. So in order to distinguish the general characteristics of his music, we should study those of the man himself." And this Étude sur Charles Koechlin par lui-même proceeds to do that, at length and in explicit detail, thereby flying in the face of the contemporarily emergent "new criticism" that dominated mid-twentieth century critical writing by insisting upon the need to separate the artwork from the artist. In any case, Koechlin's study, translated as an appendix to Robert Orledge's path-breaking Charles Koechlin -- His Life and Works (1989), and echoed throughout its text, has shaped and colored all subsequent writing about him. Thus, the public image of Koechlin is largely one that he himself projected near the end of his life. It is, therefore, curious that there is not a single work in his voluminous oeuvre even remotely similar to his great contemporary Richard Strauss' self-aggrandizing Ein Heldenleben or the notoriously self-revealing Sinfonia Domestica. The closest Koechlin came to musical autobiography -- not very -- is in the Septet for winds, begun in Paris in June 1937 and completed in August during his fourth and last tour of the United States -- the fourth movement, a fugue, being written on the train between Chicago and Los Angeles as "the comfort of the American carriages allowed me to work peacefully." The Septet was originally titled Caprice sur le retour de mon fils Yves, the finale, another fugue, being based on a "theme sung by my son at the age of four." Yves, Koechlin's youngest son, at 15, had run away from home -- Suzanne Koechlin fetched him back from Menton and the news of his return reached the composer in America. As Orledge remarked, "His joy and rediscovered internal peace are evident in the Septet," whose fifth movement is titled "Sérénité." Characteristically, Koechlin begins with a Monodie for clarinet, joined by flute and bassoon for a second movement Pastorale. The remaining movements use the septet -- the Intermezzo is an airy tissue with a wistful rounding off, the Fugue, like a children's round, percolating with happiness. "Sérénité" is a quiet daydream, and the final Fugue again has the buoyancy of children at play. The premiere was given over Radio INR, Brussels on March 17, 1943, with Paul Collaer conducting." (Adrian Corleonis)
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