Jazz Inflections: Orsino Wind Ensemble - BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Time to party like it’s 1929, as the Orsino Ensemble kicks up its heels with wind music from the Jazz Age and beyond.

The wonder of woodwind: it only takes a handful of players to create a world of colour. And there’s an unmistakably Gallic swing to today’s concert – music from that incredible moment between the wars when composers of all nations gathered in Paris to invent bright new sounds and dance to the rhythms of jazz. Shostakovich’s catchy Jazz Suite (think Eyes Wide Shut) and Valerie Coleman’s blues-haunted Concerto bring a flavour that’s all their own.

Critics went wild for 2021’s ‘delightful’ debut album by the Orsino Ensemble, a versatile and adventurous new woodwind ensemble that’s practically a dream team of the UK’s freshest and finest wind players. Expect humour, expect style – and expect surprises.

‘I know little about American music except that of the music halls ... and I can never get enough of it.’ – Igor Stravinsky