Les Vents Français

Les Vents Français (the French Winds) have been termed a wind supergroup, an all-star ensemble, a who's who of the international wind ensemble scene. Yet they have cohered and developed as a group, in contrast to the one-off quality shared by the performances of many such supergroups.

Les Vents Français are flutist <a href="spotify:artist:6duaKoFWgzQNgHlfmn3dHq">Emmanuel Pahud</a>, a preeminent inheritor of the classical French school of flute playing; oboist <a href="spotify:artist:2OmtnJTgdAAVVe6moOqecH">François Leleux</a>, principal oboist at the <a href="spotify:artist:2I3uCrSxWfzmVlJ0d734BA">Paris Opéra</a> and well known as a conductor and pedagogue; clarinetist <a href="spotify:artist:31rALqMKxBY8SoTJhNwJhn">Paul Meyer</a>, a champion of unusual and contemporary repertoire; bassoonist Gilbert Audin, an <a href="spotify:artist:2I3uCrSxWfzmVlJ0d734BA">Opéra</a> bassoonist and professor at the Paris Conservatory; and hornist Radovan Vlatkovic, a horn virtuoso and professor of horn at the Salzburg Mozarteum. The group is often joined by pianist <a href="spotify:artist:6JSdWtNdhfjutA5r16UOpx">Eric Le Sage</a>, who has performed more than 20 rarely heard piano concertos by Romantic and contemporary composers.

Les Vents Français formed in the early 2000s and recorded several albums for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22RCA%22">RCA</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22EMI%22">EMI</a> (sometimes in smaller groupings not bearing the Vents Français name, or later packaged under that name). Among their earlier successes was the 2005 album French Connection (by <a href="spotify:artist:6duaKoFWgzQNgHlfmn3dHq">Pahud</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:31rALqMKxBY8SoTJhNwJhn">Meyer</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6JSdWtNdhfjutA5r16UOpx">Le Sage</a>), noting the connections between French repertory and works by <a href="spotify:artist:01UzgUtDa2NqWuvUjrrl3p">Villa-Lobos</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:6s1pCNXcbdtQJlsnM1hRIA">Shostakovich</a>. They gained fans in Japan with an <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22EMI%22">EMI</a> release simply entitled The Best Quintet Music in 2012, and has toured there several times, as well as in Europe. Les Vents Français signed with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warner+Classics%22">Warner Classics</a> in 2013 and have since recorded exclusively for that label, often recording at the Bavarian Musikstudios in Munich. Les Vents Français have indeed concentrated on French music; their 2014 release, French Music for Winds, juxtaposed largely forgotten composers such as <a href="spotify:artist:7cktfaBNPmmEN71qPbDDj2">Paul Taffanel</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5RLjTTgn3q1gx0A514BRzx">André Jolivet</a> with the better-known <a href="spotify:artist:17hR0sYHpx7VYTMRfFUOmY">Ravel</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3KSFGteIQYY5pgE3veclRk">Ibert</a>, and their concert programs have explored similar programs. The group gained an audience beyond the French music sphere with the 2017 release Beethoven, featuring several quite rare selections by that exhaustively explored composer.

Les Vents Français continue to record for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warner+Classics%22">Warner Classics</a> and has increasingly placed an emphasis on contemporary music and on expanding the repertory for winds. They have commissioned and premiered new works by such composers as <a href="spotify:artist:2YEd7nCCOjrPEL602PCUXL">Thierry Escaich</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0P3vpPAVNhZov2HJ6OMKc7">Thierry Pécou</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5JGqtK0IG04zU6hHLGKOhE">Fuminori Tanada</a>. Les Vents Français' 2018 album Concertante!, featuring Classical-era wind works, and 2019's Moderniste, were both nominated for Opus Klassik awards. Les Vents Français had a busy summer touring schedule in 2019 with stops at Mozartfest Würzburg, Audi Sommerkonzerte Ingolstadt, Rencontres Musicales d'Evian, and LacMus Festival Como. The group released a new album, Romantique, in 2020. That year, the group's touring schedule included stops in Düsseldorf, Germany, Rijeka, Croatia, and Göteborg, Sweden.