favorite Romantic-era or Modern wind quintets

[Rooster_Ties]

In my on-going love affair with Arnold Schoenberg's three "mid 20's" opus-numbered 'wind-centric' chamber works...

• Serenade, Op. 24 - for clarinet, bass clarinet, mandolin(!), guitar, violin, viola, and cello - plus a bass vocalist (on one movement only)
  
• Wind Quintet, Op. 26 - for standard wind-quintet: flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon
  
• Suite, Op. 29 - for sopranino clarinet in Eb, standard Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, vioin, viola, cello, and piano
  
• ...plus Webern's arrangement of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony #1 (Op. 9) - for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

...I'm looking for suggestions for other spritely, even "thorny" wind quintets -- or other similar, multi-movement chamber works with at least three or four instruments, at least one of which is a woodwind instrument. (For instance, quartets or quintets with only one woodwind are fair game! - in fact, other than the Brahms quintet for clarinet & string quartet, I don't think I have any other "single woodwind instrument plus strings, possibly also w/ piano" works).

FYI, I have only limited interest in pre-Romantic-era music, and in particular, practically NO Classical-era composers -- thus my focus on Romantic-era, post-Romantic, plus any kind of "Modern"-era classical music you can imagine -- at least if it has a good beat, and you can dance to it -- you know, in an "easy, teenage, New York" sort of way (to paraphrase Frank Zappa's extemporized intro to at least one version of "The Black Page").

On the one hand, I've been seriously looking for more works that float my boat like these particular Schoenberg works that I (seriously) adore. And on the other hand, though I have quite a fair number of chamber works in my collection, I have a serious underrepresentation of wind-quintets, and other similarly instrumented works.

So, what am I missing? Any favorites to recommend?

Edited January 31, 2012 by Rooster_Ties

[Rooster_Ties]

Here's a dandy wind quintet I wish I could find on CD, or even on LP (the only thing I've yet found are these Youtube uploads)...

Roberto Gerhard, Wind Quintet (1928), Part 1 of 2

Roberto Gerhard, Wind Quintet (1928), Part 2 of 2

[A Lark Ascending]

Not a quintet but should fit your area:

Symphonies of Wind Instruments and the Octet - Stravinsky

Loads of British and French repertoire in the wind + strings or wind and piano area. The French neo-classicists have the dryness you might be looking for (the old Melos Ensemble disc of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro (flute included) has some great pieces by Poulenc and Francaix - only available in the recent multi-CD Melos set [although mainly Classical/Romantic it ends with woodwind-centric pieces from people like Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies that might suit your Schoenberg starting point.])

These discs have some unusual British pieces:

If you're in the mood for something a bit folksier there are wind arrangements of music by Holst (the 2 Suites and a few other things), Vaughan Williams (English Folk Song Suite and Sea Songs) and 2 CDs of Percy Grainger on Chandos (had one of those on today). A long way from Schoenberg, though!

The Nielsen wind quintet is lovely too.

Jeff should be able to give you some expert advice here - especially in the American repertoire.

I know you excluded Classical/Romantic era but if you don't know them you really should hear the Mozart Gran Partita K361 and the Schubert Octet.

Edited January 31, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[Rooster_Ties]

I know you excluded Classical/Romantic era but if you don't know them you really should hear the Mozart Gran Partita K361 and the Schubert Octet.

Romantic-era is great! It's just Classical-era that leaves me a bit cold (or at least Mozart and Haydn). But I DO mostly like the Schubert I've heard.

[DTMX]

George Perle wrote some Schoenbergian-type wind quintets that are available here.

[Leeway]

Try some of Stravinsky's wind instrument chamber work:

[Rooster_Ties]

Hey, I've got that very Stravinsky disc! OK, I've also looked through all my classical CD's - and found a few to mention that I really love (and a few more I might mention later)...

• Arthur Foote - Nocturne and Scherzo for Flute & String Quartet (1918), basically an arrangement of his 2nd String Quartet (1993) that includes flute. (FYI, my wife and I had the Scherzo (with flute) played as one of the preludes at our wedding 11 years ago this April.)
  
• Julius Röntgen - Serenade for seven winds Op. 14 (1876) - for flute, oboe, clarinet, two bassoons, and two French horns (a spritely, 4-movement work that clocks in around 30 minutes). Röntgen was Dutch (though German born), and also a friend of Grieg's.

and two arrangements for small ensembles with winds, or at least some winds...

• Beethoven's own authorized version of his Symphony #7 - for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 French horns, and contrabassoon (arranged by Franz Anton Hoffmeister)
  
• Mahler's Symphony #4, arranged by Erwin Stein in 1921 - for 2 violins, viola, cello, double-bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, harmonium, and percussion - with soprano (or boy soprano) in the last movement.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Rooster_Ties

[jeffcrom]

Jeff should be able to give you some expert advice here - especially in the American repertoire.

Bev is giving me too much credit - I know a lot about concert band music, not as much about wind quintets. But I like Hindemith's "Kleine Kammermusik," for wind quintet, Op.24, No.2. If you want spiky, it is.

Larger than quintets, but I very much like:

Dvorak - Serenade in D Minor for Winds, op. 44. Several recordings out there; I have this one:

and this album, which has Richard Strauss' Serenade for Wind Instruments, Op. 7, Suite in B flat for 13 Winds, Op. 4, Sonatine No. 1 in F "From an Invalid's Workshop," and Symphony for Wind Instruments "The Happy Workshop."

And not quite what you're looking for, but which I can't resist mentioning, is a piece by Saint-Saens which is just a delight: Caprice on Danish & Russian Airs, Op. 79 for flute, oboe, clarinet & piano.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Here's a dandy wind quintet I wish I could find on CD, or even on LP (the only thing I've yet found are these Youtube uploads)...

Roberto Gerhard, Wind Quintet (1928), Part 1 of 2

Roberto Gerhard, Wind Quintet (1928), Part 2 of 2

Big up to you for this. What I've read about Gerhard sounds like an interesting body of work.

[David Ayers]

There are notable wind quintets by Ligeti, Françaix, Barber, Birtwistle, Hindemith, Carter, Kurtag and as mentioned Nielsen.

[David Ayers]

Janacek's Mladi has six winds and there are quite a few pieces for piano and winds that might fit your bill.

[Peter Friedman]

Beethoven: Septet , Op.20

Berwald : Grand Septet in B Flat

Kreutzer : Grand Septet in E Flat Major

All 3 septets have clarinet , horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, double bass

[Rooster_Ties]

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2012 at 2:58 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

Here's a dandy wind quintet I wish I could find on CD, or even on LP (the only thing I've yet found are these Youtube uploads)...

Roberto Gerhard, Wind Quintet (1928), Part 1 of 2

Roberto Gerhard, Wind Quintet (1928), Part 2 of 2

Just seeing that these links (above) have disappeared from the Organissimo instance of this thread -- though the actual YouTube uploads are still out there.  I sure as heck wish I could find this on CD.  When last I looked (several years ago), there was only one very obscure CD edition, which (at the time) seemed impossible to track down.  Anyway, here's the links again, part 1 (movements 1-2), and part 2 (movements 3-4)...

 

 

Edited August 28, 2018 by Rooster_Ties