London Mozart Players Chamber Ensemble . Pascal Rogé

Music for wind instruments without strings, in the form of divertimenti and serenades, was extremely popular in the second half of the eighteenth century. However, in the Romantic period interest in the genre declined considerably. It was only in the twentieth century that wind music enjoyed a real revival, starting in France. This renewed interest in wind instruments was linked to the wave of innovation that swept through French music in the first few decades of the century. With the backing of Eric Satie and the poet Jean Cocteau, several young composers, together called 'Les Six' (which included Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)), reacted against the bombast of German Romanticism and the hazy Impressionism which had until then prevailed. All forms of excess and subjectivity were banished and were countered by an aesthetic of simplicity, directness and conciseness. They found the model for this new music in, among other places, the world of cabaret. In the joy of spontaneous playing they found the appropriate antidote to the heavily-laden Romanticism and the atmospheric sounds of Impressionism that had gone before. A great penchant for wind instruments, a consequence of their objective and often sensual sound qualities, also suited the anti-Romantic attitude of 'Les Six'. The result was a 'musique pour faire plaisir'. Following in the footsteps of 'Les Six', Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) and Jean Françaix (1912-1997) also wrote compositions very much in the 'divertissement' mode.