In 1796, the Paris Conservatory opened its doors to 351 students. Attendance more than tripled since.
Conservatory students perform a "contest piece" at the end of the school year in front of their professors. These pieces are written with technical and musical challenges specific to a given instrument, allowing students to demonstrate a variety of abilities.
That type of music didn't always exist for each instrument, so the Paris Conservatory began commissioning new music for each instrument each year well into the 20th century.
Additionally, instruments like flute, horn and trumpet underwent physical changes that allowed players to create sounds they couldn't in the past.
And the saxophone was invented.
As a result, 20th-century French composers wrote quite a bit of solo music for a variety of instruments that were more or less ignored for centuries.
On today's Learning to Listen, you'll hear contest pieces for bassoon, horn, trumpet, clarinet and more.
Program Playlist
Paul Dukas
Villanelle
Barry Tuckwell, horn
Daniel Blumenthal, piano
Etcetera 1135
Georges Enesco
Legend
Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet
Roland Pontinen, piano
Philips 426144
Camille Saint-Saëns
Bassoon Sonata
Dag Jensen, bassoon
Leonard Hokanson, piano
Dabringhaus 3395
Charles Eduoard Lefèbvre
Two Pieces for Oboe and Piano
Humbert Locarelli, oboe
Thomas Hrynkiv, piano
Lyrichord 6025
Alexandre Guilmant
Morceau Symphonique
Christian Lindberg, trombone
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Bis 378
Philippe Gaubert
Nocturne & Scherzo
Julia Bogorad-Kogan, flute
Margo Garrett, piano
Ten Thousand Lakes 121
Carl Maria von Weber
Clarinet Concerto No. 2
Neville Marriner, conductor
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, orchestra
Andrew Marriner, clarinet
Philips 432146
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