RWCMD Chamber Winds

Stravinsky’s transformation from the leader of the avant-garde to the pioneer of neo-classicism in his piece Octet took the musical establishment by surprise. Gordon Jacob does the reverse in Old Wine in New Bottles, ‘re-packaging’ old English folk tunes in his inimitable style. In between, two clarinets explore Poulenc’s take on ‘retro’, heavily laden with bitonal spice.

‘The Octet began with a dream, in which I saw myself in a small room surrounded by a small group of instrumentalists playing some attractive music… I awoke from this little concert in a state of great delight and anticipation and the next morning began to compose’.