This CD gathers together a group of rarely heard concertante pieces for various combinations of wind instruments by four composers of the 18th and 19th centuries, Franz Danzi, Agostino Belloli, Louis Emmanuel Jadin, and Ignaz Lachner. The soloists, Egils Sefers (clarinet), Niels Anders Vedsten Larsen (bassoon) and David Palmquist (horn), are all members of the Danish Wind Quintet “Clarion”. The Sinfonietta Riga is conducted by Claus Efland. Apart from the Danzi work, all these concertante works are receiving their first recordings.

The concertanate works on this collection are Belloli’s Concerto for clarinet, horn and orchestra, Danzi’s Concertino for clarinet, bassoon and orchestra B flat major op. 475, Lachner’s Concertino for horn, bassoon and orchestra op. 43, and Jadin’s Symphonie Concertante for clarinet, horn, bassoon and orchestra. All these pieces are heard in their premiere recordings, with the exception of Danzi’s Concertino.

Danish-born conductor Claus Efland is one of the most widely-respected and versatile conductors of his generation. Born in 1974, he later moved to London, where he studied conducting with John Carewe and Neil Thomson at the Royal College of Music. His studies were further consolidated by a period of work with the Staatskapelle Dresden where he acted as assistant to Sir Colin Davis. Claus Efland has received numerous awards for his conducting including the Theodore Stier Prize and the prestigious Scandinavian Leonie Sonning Award. In 2004 he was a prizewinner at the Donatella Flick Competition in London. He was appointed Music Director of the Bardi Symphony Orchestra in 2008.