“In addition to working together with living composers, the rediscovery of undeservedly forgotten works is an immense enrichment for us instrumentalists, who all too often find ourselves in the role of reproducing a few well-known pieces. It is for this reason that my joy was all the greater when one day Oliver Triendl told me about a genuine treasure: during his extensive research on composers from the Balkan region, he had unearthed a number of completely unknown works for bassoon and piano and immediately had the intuitive idea of recording them on CD.

However, the result of his research was so extensive that several CDs could have been filled with the works he had found, and so we played through piles of sheet music for half a night until we finally arrived at our selection for this CD. With this CD, I hope to contribute to the expansion of the repertoire of my instrument, and also to promote a wider dissemination of the classical musical tradition of the Balkan region, which has so far been under-represented, and not only in the bassoon repertoire.” Theo Plath

In the wake of World War I and the October Revolution, countless artists emigrated from Eastern Europe to Paris. Alexander Tcherepnin was soon welcomed and adopted by groups of artists such as the École de Paris, a loose gathering of emigrants from several countries that included Bohuslav Martinů and Romanian composer Marcel Mihalovici. Diyang Mei has held the position of principal viola of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra since the fall of 2019. In October 2022 he will start the position of principal viola with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

After the signal event that was World War I, gifted young composers trooped into the French metropolis full of hope. In 1925, the publisher Michel Dillard coined the term L’École de Paris (‘The Paris School’) in reference to the foreign composers then living in Paris, principally the Hungarian Tibor Harsányi (1898–1954), Poland’s Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986), Bohuslav Martinu from Czechoslovakia (1890–1959), Russia’s Alexander Tcherepnin (1899–1977), and the Romanian Marcel Mihalovici (1898–1985), all of whose works he specialised in disseminating. These composers came to Paris from Eastern Europe and all, with the exception of Martinu [and Swiss composer Conrad Beck (1901–1989)], died there. All five initially addressed the difficult task of translating their countries’ folk music idioms into standard musical notation. Several works on this programme are heard in their world premiere recordings.

After the signal event that was World War I, young, hopeful, gifted composers trooped into the French metropolis. In 1925, the publisher Michel Dillard coined the term École de Paris (School of Paris) for the foreign composers then living in Paris, especially the Hungarian Tibor Harsányi (1898-1954), Pole Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986), Czech Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959), Russian Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977), and Romanian Marcel Mihalovici (1898-1985), whose works he specialized in disseminating. All five composers came to Paris from Eastern Europe and all, with the exception of Martinu, died there. All five initially attempted to translate the principal aspects of the difficult-to-notate idioms of folk music from their homelands into standard musical notation. Some works can be heard in a World Premiere Recording.