Les Vents Français
Biography Les Vents Français
Les Vents Français
The cast list of the ensemble Les Vents Francais reads like the „Who’s who" of the international Wind ensemble’s scene. Five immanent experts of their respective instruments have met to a soloist’s ensemble of top class. This dreamteam is not only “French” as it consists almost exclusively of French musicians, it also devotes itself with a special verve to the music of Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Albert Roussel up to André Caplet. According to the repertoire the ensemble performs from two to five musicians and is completed by pianist Eric Le Sage.
The group has been touring throughout Europe and in Japan. Recent engagements include concerts at Mozartfest Würzburg, Audi Sommerkonzerte Ingolstadt, Rencontres Musicales d'Evian und LacMus Festival Como.
Les Vents Francais are working on a continuous expansion of the repertoire for winds by premiering numerous works by contemporary composers such as Thierry Escaich, Thierry Pécou, Guillaume Connesson, Michael Jarrell, Misato Mochizuki, Fuminori Tanada, Donald Waxmann and Qigang Chen.
Warner Classics has shortly released five highly-acclaimed recordings: 20th Century Wind Quintets, Winds & Piano (Mozart, Beethoven, Poulenc, Roussel, Caplet; Rimsky-Korsakow), Beethoven Album, Concertante! together with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and lately Moderniste with music by Philippe Hersant and Thierry Escaich.
Their discography includes furthermore the complete chamber music by Francis Poulenc, the album “French Connection” with works for flute, clarinet and piano, the double album “Best of Quintet Music” which combines music for wood winds by French composers with repertoire of the 20th century for RCA Red Seal and EMI.
Éric Le Sage
French pianist Éric Le Sage completed to study piano at the age of 17 at the Paris Conservatory and continued his studies with Maria Curcio in London. Prizewinner of several international competitions, Le Sage performs worldwide as as soloist and in chamber music. Highlights of his work are recordings with all music for piano by Francis Poulenc und Robert Schumann, which Le Sage recorded for Alpha winning the Annual prize of the German Record critics and the Grand Prix du Disque of the Academy Charles Cros. Together with Paul Meyer and Emmanuel Pahud he founded the Chamber Music Festival Musique à l’Empéri together in Salon-de-Provence. Since 2010 Éric Le Sage is professor for piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg.
