Room for improvement

Air is the material of these five musicians – both raw substance and boundary. Breath becomes sound, and sound requires breath. The wind quintet lives this equation with five instruments that don't technically belong together, and which have challenged composers for two centuries. The present album brings together three of these challenges – three ways of conceptualizing music that stand consciously side by side. With "Tzigane," Valerie Coleman unleashes the energy of Romani music: ten minutes of rhythmic precision and sonic immediacy. Jean Françaix's approach is entirely different: his "Quintet No. 1" is neoclassical elegance and subtle irony – the ensemble centers the communicative dimension, the delicate balancing act between virtuosity and a shared culture of sound. Finally, Kalevi Aho's "Quintet No. 1" focuses on the tensions of the instrumentation – extreme contrasts, balance, and the blending of voices.

The Dandelion Quintet was founded in 2018 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. This was followed by a first prize at the Ars Ventus competition in Bucharest, invitations to the Chamber Music Lockenhaus and the Erl Festival, and their 2024 debut "Windspiel." "Luft nach oben" (Room to Breathe) is the next step. The artistic signature of the Dandelion Quintet is characterized by the combination of virtuosity and a joy for playing. This results in an exceptionally colorful variety of sound – a quality that, in this intensity, finds its unique manifestation within chamber music, particularly in the woodwind quintet.