»AtemBogen«

The Brazilian composer and conductor Heitor Villa-Lobos was particularly committed to the sustained further development and refinement of the specifically Brazilian musical form of the chôro, a genre of music traditionally composed for two instruments, typically characterised by a relatively fast tempo and a melodic and rhythmic structure based on semiquavers (generally with a samba-type phrasing). His duet »Bachianas Brasileiras« no. 6 for flute and bassoon dating from 1938, the sixth work in a series of a total of nine suites – which, incidentally, actually uses the word »chôro« in its list of movements – clearly demonstrates the composer's effort to combine stylistic elements from Brazilian folklore and popular music with contrapuntal influences from European Baroque music.

Maurice Ravel's String quartet in F major, op. 35, caused a huge range of different reactions when it was premiered on 5 March 1904. While Claude Debussy was enthusiastic about the work, Ravel's mentor Gabriel Fauré was more hostile to it. Ravel developed in this early work – he saw it as the conclusion of his study period – an independent sound, such as in the 3rd movement which has rather rhapsodic features, with its changes in tempo and key. The particular types of sound are produced using special playing techniques, especially in the higher registers. In the final movement, based on a chromatic five-tone motif, Ravel brings in the rhythm of a zortzico - a Basque dance.

Born to a Bavarian family of musicians, Franz Lachner was regarded during his many years as director of the Munich Court Orchestra and later as its General Music Director as one of the most influential musicians of the 19th century. Even if his work in the Bavarian capital made possible performances of Richard Wagner's music dramas, he remained closely associated during his lifetime most particularly with his two great role models, Mozart and Schubert. Lachner's Nonet in F major for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass, op. 121, for example, is a homage to Franz Schubert's Octet D 803, from which he took the key, the structure of the first movement with a slow introduction and subsequent allegro plus numerous melodic and harmonic details. The fact that, in the second movement, Lachner uses a minuet instead of a scherzo also represents, in stylistic terms, a nostalgically transfiguring reference which can be seen as drawing on the minuet tradition of Viennese classicism, as was modern in Romantic orchestral suites after 1850. The rhythmic figures of the final movement, which ends in a short stretto, are once again a reference to the music of Schubert.

Heitor Villa-Lobos "Bachianas Brasileiras" number 6 for flute and bassoon
Maurice Ravel String quartet in F major, opus 35
Franz Lachner Nonet in F major for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, violoncello and double bass, opus 121