52. Coffee Concert

Kalevi Aho is a remarkable and incredibly prolific (17 symphonies, 5 operas, 28 concertos) Finnish composer, who can match the skill of French composers in his writing for winds especially their endless capacity for witty interchanges. Ludwig Thuille was a contemporary of Mahler and a friend of Richard Strauss, but like Mahler, he died before his time. This Sextet, his best-known work, is a powerful and melodic Romantic work firmly in the tradition of Brahms.