Classical Music | Music for Bassoon

Recorded on 09/07/2004, uploaded on 01/21/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Concertpiece, Op. 2          Franz Berwald

Franz Berwald was the leading Swedish composer of the 19

century.  He was not particularly interested in forging a Swedish nationalist style, and wrote "Art may be coupled only with a cheerful frame of mind. The weak-willed should have nothing to do with it. Even if interesting for a moment, in the end every sighing artist will bore listeners to death."  That motto certainly applies to the Concertpiece, a work overflowing with melody and good humor.  It opens with an audacious use of the extended range of the bassoon.  Berwald's warm melodies and fresh harmonic vocabulary lead to a central section which is itself a theme and variations, again pushing the bassoon to its virtuosic limit.  The work ends with a joyous recapitulation of the opening material.   Peter Kolkay

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.