Before Quintet for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon was commissioned by the Association of Polish Composers from Michał Spisak, the artist had time to leave his homeland to hone his talent in Paris under the tutelage of the famous Nadia Boulanger. Who knows to what extent the opportunity to become acquainted with French chamber music of the first decades of the 20th century influenced the character of the piece, full of elegance, airiness and attractive - largely resulting from the cast - colour.

"No, young man, not like that at all. More rhythm. It's a folk dance" - this is how Edvard Grieg was to admonish the young Maurice Ravel, playing one of the dances of the then aged composer. Among the numerous arrangements of native melodies, his 4 Norwegian Dances Op. 35, originally composed for two pianos and later reworked - not only by the composer - for various casts, gained great popularity.

Paul Hindemith's modernist Kammermusik cycle, eight pieces (aptly described as 'semi-modern Brandenburg concertos'), was intended for various combinations of instruments. Drawing on the material of the first of these, he created a composition of smaller size and cast (for wind quintet), docketed as Kleine Kammermusik.

György Ligeti's cycle of six miniatures (bagatelles) for wind quintet was premiered in a decomposed form (without the final piece, saturated with intervals of a second) in Budapest in 1953 because, as the composer himself was to comment, 'totalitarianism does not like dissonances'.

Performers:
Quintessence:
Seweryn Zapłatyński flute
Piotr Lis oboe
Grzegorz Wołczański clarinet
Marcin Orliński bassoon
Daniel Otero Carneiro French horn

Programme
Michal Spisak
Quintet for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon [11′].
Edvard Grieg
Four Norwegian Dances, Op. 35 (arranged for wind quintet by Harry Stanton) [18′].
... pause [15′].
Paul Hindemith
Kleine Kammermusik op. 24 no. 2 [12′].
György Ligeti
Six Bagatelles for wind quintet [12′]