Trio, Quartet And Quintette For Woodwinds; New Art Wind Quintet

Released in 1956 on the Westminster label, this recording showcases the New Art Wind Quintet performing the chamber works of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. The album features the Trio for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon, alongside the Quartet and Quintette for woodwinds, capturing a mid-century effort to document Villa-Lobos's distinctively polyphonic and rhythmic approach to neoclassical forms. It serves as a testament to the era's growing interest in high-fidelity classical recordings of contemporary international repertoire.

The New Art Wind Quintet was a prominent ensemble of the 1950s, noted for their technical precision in navigating the complex textures of Villa-Lobos's scores. Westminster Records was highly regarded during this period for its commitment to both audiophile sound quality and the promotion of less-recorded modern composers. Critics of the time praised the ensemble for their clarity and sympathetic handling of the composer's adventurous instrumentation, helping to cement the reputation of these pieces within the standard wind chamber music canon.