Bucolique - Clarinet and Piano

Eugene Bozza (Nice 1905 - Valenciennes 1991) was a brilliant student at the Paris Conservatory, winning First Prizes for the violin (1924), conducting (1930), composition (1934), as well as the Grand Prix de Rome. He conducted the orchestra of the Opera-Comique until 1948; he then became director of the Valenciennes Conservatory. His works include several operas, ballets, large-scale symphonic and choral works. But his worldwide reputation is derived mainly from his many chamber works, written for various instrumental formations, with a preference for wind instruments. As Paul Griffiths points out in his article in the New Grove, Bozza’s works reveal “ melodic fluency, elegance of structure and a consistently sensitive concern for instrumental capabilities”.