The variation5 quintet (note the spelling: no capital letter and the number as shown) brings together five far-flung musicians: flautist Magali Mosnier (first solo flute of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra); the oboist Ramón Ortega Quero (first solo in the Bavarian Radio Orchestra); clarinettist Sebastian Manz (first solo of the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra); bassoonist Marc Trénél (solo bassoon in the Paris Orchestra); and horn player David Fernández Alonso (first solo horn player of the Rotterdam Philharmonic): let's just say it's always a challenge to bring together these five first-rate musicians, who play first-rate parts in Europe's first-rate orchestras! But when it works, the sparks fly. And so it is for this album, recorded at Baden-Baden, which brings together several works written between 1920 and 1940, which are nevertheless all very different, by Malcolm Arnold - the delicious Three Shanties; Carl Nielsen - the luminous and imposing Quintet; Paul Hindemith with his little gem, Kleine Kammermusic ("Little Chamber Music"); and Jean Françaix, whose music is still scandalously under-appreciated in France, where he has never really been forgiven for daring to write "light music" in a country where it is frowned upon. The widespread neglect of his music is an insult to the extraordinary harmonic, instrumental and melodic science of Françaix's work, and ignores a music with a devilish complexity. One final word on the choice of the works: they represent a real European spread, in the spirit of the range of musicians who make up variation5. © SM/Qobuz