While art history defines as “École de Paris” an art-historical phenomenon, i.e. a large group of visual artists of non-French origin, many of them of Eastern European and Jewish descent, who worked in the French capital in the first decades of the twentieth century, musicology and musical life in general still find it difficult to recognise as music-historical reality an “École de Paris” with the same complexity and seminal influence. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its first appearance in the musical context, the 100th anniversary of the world premiere of Stravinsky’s seminal Octet and the 100th anniversary of George Antheil’s arrival in Paris, the present recording takes the opportunity to scrutinise the term “École de Paris” and to define it more clearly against the background of the enormous stylistic diversity of the various groups that came together in Paris of the 1920s, their amicable interrelationships and reciprocal influences beyond the epochal break of 1939–45.

A presentation of central works of the wind repertoire, composed in Paris between 1923 and 1963 produced in cooperation with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Deutschlandfunk Kultur at the Haus des Rundfunks Berlin on the occasion of Stravinsky's 50th death anniversary in April 2021.

Marcel Mihalovici's brilliant Étude en deux parties, first performed in Donaueschingen in 1951, is heard here for the first time in a modern interpretation after historical recordings with Mihalovici's wife Monique Haas.

The booklet contains an essay on the “École de Paris” with detailed comments on the works – the long version of the essay can be downloaded from the label’s website www.eda-records.com

The soloists on this recording were awarded the Opus Klassik Award in 2023 for their complete recording of the works for cello and piano by Simon Laks.