Five for Five: Chamber Music Michael Fine

• Michael Fine: Quintet for Bassoon and Strings:
• 1Quintet for Bassoon and Strings: I. Allegro scherzando04:41
• 2Quintet for Bassoon and Strings: II. Largo03:48
• 3Quintet for Bassoon and Strings: III. Allegro03:49
• Michael Fine:
• 4Elegy For...05:42
• Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet:
• 5Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet: I. Andante lyrico04:21
• 6Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet: II. Adagio02:21
• 7Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet: III. Allegro01:33
• Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet:
• 8Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet: I. Adagio. Andante cantabile07:18
• 9Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet: II. Larghetto03:39
• 10Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet: III. Moderato01:59
• Quintet for Flute and String Quartet:
• 11Quintet for Flute and String Quartet: I. Moderato06:31
• 12Quintet for Flute and String Quartet: II. Andante piacevole04:41
• 13Quintet for Flute and String Quartet: III. Adagio04:54
• 14Quintet for Flute and String Quartet: IV. Allegro04:33
• Total Runtime59:50

Info for Five for Five: Chamber Music

Evidence Classics release their second recording of Michael Fine’s music: Five for Five – Five Quintets for five woodwind soloists and string quartet. The recording was made following performances at Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo with Festival Musicians from leading musical organizations including the Metropolitan Opera, Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Atlanta Symphony among others. These are all world premiere recordings. Michael Fine produced the recording. Jin Choi was engineer for the sessions at Cuesta College.

"It is a lot of fun to make music with close friends. It is a privilege to bring to life the music of a great composer, who also happens to be a friend. This recording is both. Performing these pieces was so interesting. They look extremely simple upon face value, but even after a few measures we all realized that each phrase was very complex and detailed. We all got the best results when we relaxed and purged our minds of any restless thoughts – Michael’s music, very much like Copland’s, demands a certain amount of serenity. My colleagues and I hope we have done the music justice in this album. – Scott Yoo, Director, Festival Mozaic, Violin 1, Mozaic Quartet." (Scott Yoo, Artistic Director of Festival Mozaic and First Violin of the Mozaic Quartet)

“It is an honor and a pleasure to release our second recording of the music of the composer Michael Fine who offers us here again a magnificent disc, with five works highlighting the expressive power of the woodwinds , and which will undoubtedly be added in the future to the core repertoire of chamber music. Written in an original Franco / American musical aesthetic, sometimes close to that of Milhaud or Gerschwin, these quintets served by exceptional soloists remain resolutely modern and visionary. A particularly successful recording also in terms of sound, which will delight the most demanding audiophiles. Well done Michael!” (Evidence Classic’s Executive Director, Jean-Hugues Allard)

Fei Xei, bassoon
Robert Walters, English Horn
Anton Rist, clarinet
Xiaodi Liu, oboe
Alice K. Dade, flute
Scott Yoo, violin
Erik Arvinder, violin
Maurycy Banaszek, viola
Jonah Kim, cello

Michael Fine
GRAMMY Award winning Classical Producer of the Year (1992), Michael Fine is widely acknowledged as one of the top classical recording producers in the world. In addition to recording production, Fine has been active in artistic planning for orchestras including the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Gergiev Festival Rotterdam where he served as Artistic Manager, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France where he was Interim Artistic Director and with the Seoul Philharmonic where he was Artistic Advisor. Formerly Vice President of Artists & Repertoire at Deutsche Grammophon, he was the first American to hold the post of Artistic Director of the hundred year old label.

Fine also has given lectures, talks, and seminars about the music and recording business – from the Juilliard School and Hamburg Hochschule fur Musik, to the keynote address at the International Organisation of Music Competitions, and served as a juror on several music competition panels. Fine remains active as clarinetist with engagements at Festival Mozaic in California and the Tongyeong Music Festival in South Korea. He began composing in 2013: his music, including several concertos, string quartets and a variety of works for chamber ensembles is published by Le Chant du Monde in Paris and Donemus in The Netherlands. He has had works premiered in the United States, France, Spain, and Cuba where he served as composer-in-residence for the first Habana Clasica Festival.

Recordings produced by Michael Fine appear on labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Warners, SONY, Virgin Classics, EMI, BMG Classics, Telarc. KOCH and Naxos, and have won virtually every major award in the recording industry, including numerous Grammys, Edison Prize, Deutsche Schallplatten (now known as the ECHO award), Grammophone Award, Diapason d’Or, and Australian Music Award among others. He has multiple Platinum and Gold records to his credit in several countries, and has additionally been awarded prizes for his work for the Advancement of Women in Music, and was named Best Recording Producer by Classical Insites Global Classical Music Poll.

In the past few years, Fine has produced many recordings with renowned artists and ensembles including Myung Whun Chung, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Eliahu Inbal, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Paavo Jarvi, Emmanuel Pahud, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Marie-Pierre Langlament, Sumi Jo, Nicholas Angelich, Bertrand Chamayou, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Quator Ebene among many others.

Booklet for Five for Five: Chamber Music