Works For Wind Instruments

The number of Beethoven's chamber works written primarily - if not exclusively - for wind instruments is small enough that the program of this CD cannot help but be of special interest: the popular Septet for winds and strings of 1799 is joined by an Octet for winds and the little Rondino, two scores from the composer's early period. As winner of a seldom-awarded prize at the 1998 "Van Wassenaer Concours" for ensembles in The Hague, the Amphion Woodwind Octet attracted international attention to festivals and established concert series in Germany, Spain, Holland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. After their studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the members of the ensemble have distinguished themselves as soloists in the most renowned Baroque orchestras under conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, René Jacobs, Jordi Savall, and Bruno Weill. The Amphion Woodwind Octet play on historical instruments or reproductions of such.