Great sensitivity Music for wind instruments by Karel Husa - recommended by PATRIC STANDFORD '... delightful discoveries, highly recommended.'

The music of Karel Husa is colourful and fresh, constructed with highly imaginative skill, humour and great sensitivity. An hour of his pieces for wind instruments is extremely rewarding, for he handles their characteristic timbres, idiosyncrasies and eccentricities most attractively.

Husa was born in Prague in 1921 and moved to Paris in 1946, continuing his conducting studies from Talich to Clutyens, and composition with Boulanger and Honegger. In 1954 he joined the faculty of Cornell University and became widely known as both conductor and composer in the US, gaining a Pullitzer Prize for his 3rd String Quartet in 1969. His Music for Prague 1968, originally for wind ensemble and later orchestrated has, with over 7000 performances world wide, become part of the contemporary repertoire. As a young composer he set out to find an individual voice and now, in his mid-80s, he enjoys the proof of it.

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