Ton de Leeuw: "Symphonies of winds" (Amsterdam, 1966) 

Ernest Bour conducts the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in this performance of Ton de Leeuw's 'Symphonies of winds" - an Homage to Igor Stravinsky.
The Dutch musicologist Hélène Nolthenius writes: "The work was commissioned in 1963 by the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. The style of the composition is not that of a concerto as is usually the case in many compositions for wind instruments. It is especially characterized by great sound-clusters, which in diverse combinations of form and color, move about and intermingle. Sometimes the sound is condensed into a small area, in other places the entire tone-range is filled. Partly fixed, partly in freer combinations, these clusters for a total structure for which Ton de Leeuw found his inspiration in modern informal painting. The composition, however, has nothing in common with the freely improvising methods of these artists. On the contrary, the process of composing remains a deliberate act on the part of the composer. Thus, this composition is an homage to Igor Stravinsky, from whose Symphony of Wind Instruments (1920) the basic chord was borrowed as a quotation."