Quintet for winds and piano in D minor op. 8

Composed in 1894, this quintet was first performed on 3 April 1895 at the Concerts de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels by Théophile Antony (flute), Guillaume Guidé (oboe), Gustave Poncelet (clarinet), Josse Boogaerts (bassoon) and Théo Ysaÿe (piano). Magnard’s first chamber music work is striking for the originality of the instrumental forces used, which differ from those required by Mozart and Beethoven (with horn, without flute), or those by Rimsky-Korsakov (with horn, without oboe) in their respective quintets. Except for Caplet in 1899, this ensemble does not appear to have inspired any other composers. Magnard wrote his quintet after he had already written two symphonies (1890 and 1893) and the opera Yolande (premiered in Brussels in 1892). His maturity may account for the ambitious scope of this work (lasting just over half an hour), the mastery of its formal structure (particularly as regards the sonata form of the two outer movements), as well as the balance achieved between a style of writing that is at times taut, chromatic and contrapuntal and, at others, clear and fluid, brightened by pastoral colours. Each wind instrument in turn plays a “leading” role: first the clarinet (Sombre), then the flute (Tendre), the oboe (Léger) and finally the bassoon (Finale). In the “Trio” of the third movement, the oboe melody acknowledges its foreign roots without, however, creating any real stylistic rift: Magnard was here remembering a trip to Palestine taken two years previously, when he had written a report on the inauguration of the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway line for Le Figaro.