Saint-Saëns: Music for Wind Ensemble Royal Air Force College Band & Jun Märkl

• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921):
• 1 Saint-Saëns: Orient et occident, Op. 25 (Version for Wind Ensemble) 07:37
• Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288, Act III (Excerpts Arr. L.D. Steiger for Wind Ensemble):
• 2 Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288, Act III (Excerpts Arr. L.D. Steiger for Wind Ensemble): Danse bacchanale 06:44
• Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288, Act I (Excerpts Arr. L.D. Steiger for Wind Ensemble):
• 3 Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288, Act I (Excerpts Arr. L.D. Steiger for Wind Ensemble): Danse des prêtresses de dagon 02:15
• Camille Saint-Saëns:
• 4 Saint-Saëns: Marche héroïque, Op. 34, R. 168 (Arr. F. Winterbottom for Wind Ensemble) 06:26
• Suite algérienne, Op. 60, R. 173:
• 5 Saint-Saëns: Suite algérienne, Op. 60, R. 173: IV. Marche militaire française (Arr. D. Godfrey for Wind Ensemble) 04:14
• Camille Saint-Saëns:
• 6 Saint-Saëns: Pas redoublé, Op. 86, R. 150 (Arr. A. Josneau for Wind Ensemble) 04:20
• 7 Saint-Saëns: Vers la victoire, Op. 152 (Arr. D. Dondeyne for Wind Ensemble) 03:45
• 8 Saint-Saëns: Marche religieuse, Op. 107, R. 96 (Arr. E. Driscoll for Wind Ensemble) 05:10
• The Carnival of the Animals, R. 125:
• 9 Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals, R. 125: I. Introduction and Royal March of the Lion (Arr. M. Parsons for Wind Ensemble) 02:01
• Camille Saint-Saëns:
• 10 Saint-Saëns: Marche du couronnement, Op. 117, R. 180 (Arr. L. Blémant for Wind Ensemble) 06:49
• Henry VIII, R. 291, Act II (Excerpts Arr. L.P. Laurendeau for Wind Ensemble):
• 11 Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII, R. 291, Act II (Excerpts Arr. L.P. Laurendeau for Wind Ensemble): Entrée des clans 03:57
• 12 Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII, R. 291, Act II (Excerpts Arr. L.P. Laurendeau for Wind Ensemble): Idylle écossaise 04:09
• 13 Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII, R. 291, Act II (Excerpts Arr. L.P. Laurendeau for Wind Ensemble): Danse de la gipsy 02:38
• 14 Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII, R. 291, Act II (Excerpts Arr. L.P. Laurendeau for Wind Ensemble): Gigue et final 03:26
• Total Runtime 01:03:31

Info for Saint-Saëns: Music for Wind Ensemble

Camille Saint-Saëns was involved in every aspect of French music during his long lifetime, and his frequent travels led to a fascinating mixture of Western music with Moorish and African elements in works such as Orient et Occident and the Suite algérienne. Saint-Saëns wrote few works for winds, but the grand biblical themes of Samson et Dalila, patriotic military traditions and the dignity of a British coronation all lend themselves perfectly to arrangement. In The Carnival of the Animals, the roaring lions are superbly evocative; while his perspectives on English and Scottish dances in ballet movements from Henry VIII are brilliantly imaginative.

Band of the RAF College
Jun Märkl, conductor

Jun Märkl
was music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon from 2005 to 2011 and principal conductor/artistic advisor of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony until 2012. In recognition of his tenure in Lyon and his very successful nine-disc Debussy cycle with the orchestra on Naxos [8.509002], in 2012 he was honoured by the French Ministry of Culture with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

He also toured with the orchestra to Japan and major European halls and festivals. He has appeared as a guest conductor with leading orchestras in the United States, Europe and Japan, and at the Met, Covent Garden, Vienna State and Dresden Semper Operas. He also enjoys a close relationship with the NHK Symphony with which he conducted the first Japanese Ring cycle in Tokyo, and has performed and given premieres of many of Toshio Hosokawa’s works, including Lotus under the moonlight with Momo Kodama in 2006.

Born in Munich to a German father, a distinguished concertmaster, and a Japanese mother, a solo pianist, Märkl studied violin, piano and conducting at the Musikhochschule in Hanover, going on to study with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich and with Gustav Meier in Michigan. In 1986 he won the conducting competition of the Deutsche Musikrat and a year later won a scholarship from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to study at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. Soon afterwards he had a string of appointments in European opera houses followed by his first music directorships at the Staatstheater in Saarbrucken (1991–94) and at the Mannheim Nationaltheater (1994–2000).

Jun Märkl has long been a highly respected interpreter of the core Germanic repertoire from both the symphonic and operatic traditions, and, more recently, for his refined and idiomatic performances of the music of Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen. He is Invited Professor at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo.

Booklet for Saint-Saëns: Music for Wind Ensemble