Reicha: Octet, Variations for Bassoon, Grand Quintet for Horn

In his time Anton Reicha was regarded as important composer and influential theorist. Beethoven friend and Haydn’s protégé, only his chamber works (notably those featuring wind instruments) is available today on modern publications. Three examples with the Octet (Vienna, 1807), near a pre-romantic chamber symphony, the Variations for bassoon (¨Paris, 1818) and the ‘Grand Quintetto’ for Horn (Paris, 1828), both with accompagnement de cordes, basic string quartet of course, but brained as a concerto for high level wind soloists and string orchestra. Today, three funny virtuoso chamber works for great pleasure about sound and inventing, paired for the first time to taste mainly the modern wind instruments, emphasized by Berlioz, a Reicha pupil at the same time.