After the Oboe and Clarinet sonata the Bassoon sonata forms the conclusion of the wind compositions from Saint-Saens due to his death in 1921 - the also planned Sonata for English Horn never to be composed.Playing thehumorous not too technically demanding work you can hardly imagine that the composer did not feel particularly familiar on this instrument.

For Henle's Urtext edition of the Clarinet Sonata op. 167 they were able to consult the autograph for the first time. 'At the moment I am putting my last ounce of energy into giving seldom considered instruments an opportunityto be heard' Saint-Saëns wrote to a friend in April of the year he died. A sonata for oboe one for clarinet and one for bassoon were thus composed; yet he was not to hear …