Since its founding in 2003, the Poulenc Trio has established itself as one of the world’s finest ensembles in the lesser-known domain of double-reed chamber music. The Trio’s members are not only first-rate ensemble players but are also prominent virtuosos of their respective instruments. In the group’s second release on Delos, the idiomatic qualities of double-reed instruments are particularly well-served by the pair of trios by Francis Poulenc and Jean Francais. Both works are delightful models of spare neoclassical structure, spiced with piquant French flavors, lending the music an urbane and witty effect.

In contrast, the album offers winning arrangements of music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Giaocchino Rossini, topped off by an effervescent world-premiere piece, ‘Trains of Thought,’ from contemporary composer Viet Cuong, who originally conceived it as part of a multimedia work combining music and an animated film.

REVIEWS:

Since its founding in 2003, the Poulenc Trio has established itself as one of the world’s finest ensembles in the lesser-known domain of double-reed chamber music. On “Trains of Thought,” the qualities of these instruments are particularly well-served by the trios from Francis Poulenc and Jean Francais. The album also offers winning arrangements of music by Shostakovich and Rossini, topped off by a world-premiere piece from contemporary composer Viet Cuong, who originally conceived it as part of a multimedia work combining music and an animated film.

-- WFMT Chicago

There is musical fun a-plenty in the Françaix Trio, Wang managing to make his oboe positively laugh at one point in the first movement, with Young and Lande ready to follow suit. This is a bubbling, light-hearted work which, as with so much of Françaix’s writing for winds, masks an immense understanding of the potential of the individual instruments with music of such attractiveness and joviality that one forgets the enormous skill involved in bringing it all to life.

These are superbly performed works for oboe, bassoon and piano by the talented Poulenc Trio. I’m delighted to have the opportunity of adding this Delos recording to my chamber music collection.

-- MusicWeb International