Five years after its initial release, clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe's Pentatone debut album Belle époque, recorded together with the Orchestre National de Lille and its music director Alexandre Bloch, is presented in an attractively priced stereo re-issue. The programme is built around treasures of French turn-of-the-century music such as Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie, Pierné’s Canzonetta and Widor’s Introduction et Rondo (the latter two in arrangements by Jelle Tassyns). Belle époque also offers works that display a spiritual kinship to the age, such as Brahms’s First Clarinet Sonata, arranged by Luciano Berio, and a world-premiere recording of Paris-based contemporary composer Manfred Trojahn (Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestre).

Annelien Van Wauwe is a former BBC New Generation Artist and winner of the renowned Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2018. She kickstarted an exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE with this first solo album. This was the second PENTATONE album for the Orchestre National de Lille and Alexandre Bloch, after their 2018 recording of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles, crowned with a Diapason d’or.

This album is a re-released version of PTC5186808 (first released in 2019 as an SACD).