Composed in 1860, Adolph Blanc's Septet draws its inspiration from the Eb Septet by Beethoven and earned Blanc the Chartier Prize for Chamber Music composition in 1862. While other works for this instrumentation were generally composed in flat keys (the Beethoven Op. 20 was in Eb, as was the Berwald and Kreutzer, and the Schubert Octer was in F), Blanc instead uses the sharp key of E major which allows for a different sonority in the strings and a more "present" horn sound with the higher E crook. Meanwhile, the clarinet, while taking on a prominent role in the septet is relegated to the slightly darker and less present A clarinet sonority, often bolstered in octaves by the violin or cello.

Joanna Becker, Violin
Yvonne Smith, Viola
Louis-Marie Fardet, Cello
Paul Ellison, Double Bass
Thomas Carroll, Clarinet
Georgeanne Banker, Bassoon
Elisabeth Axtell, Horn

Recorded Live in Houston, TX on February 19, 2022