Already in the first half of the 20th century, French composers and orchestras used to put the woodwinds in the foreground, which was to define their style and the special French sound. Francis Poulenc was one of the most important representatives of this tradition, and so the creative polychromy and sensitive poetry of his music is the focus of the 6th Chamber Concert. "After all the impressionistic mists, won't this simple and clear art [of Poulenc], so reminiscent of Scarlatti and Mozart, be the next phase of our music?" In any case, Darius Milhaud's prophetic statement about Poulenc's becoming and working was to prove true in the realm of wind music. With his few wind works - the trio, the sextet and the three sonatas for flute, clarinet and bassoon - he set standards that continue to have an impact today. Poulenc's compositional spheres are complemented by the music of Henri Tomasi, Jean Françaix, and Charles Koechlin. Behind the seemingly naive title of Tomasi's rural concerto "Concert champêtre" lies a knowing allusion to the music of the French Rococo, mixing French "couleur locale" with the Corsican flair of Tomasi's homeland. Returning to the sounds of Impressionism is Charles Koechlin's Bassoon Sonata. Koechlin was considered an outsider in the France of his time, yet he created an exceptional work that shows how delicate and at the same time wild and intoxicating the bassoon is, how many splendid nuances of sound the instrument, which otherwise usually stands in the background, carries within itself. Jean Françaix's Trio in four movements shows the 82-year-old composer unchanged at the height of his creative powers: melodic inventiveness, rhythmic wit, harmonic elasticity and an elegant instrumental movement enter into a particularly happy union.
