Ronde de Saisons : Music composed for the Société des Instruments Anciens, founded in 1901 by CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921) and HENRI CASADESUS (1879-1947). Henri Casadesus - Quatuor en si mineur, Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) - Quartetto in re maggiore, Camille Saint-Saëns - Le papillon et l'étoile (with Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano; Sian Ricketts, recorder), Henri Casadesus - Ronde de Saisons. Science Ficta (Loren Ludwig, Caitlin Hedge, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, and Doug Balliett).

Description: Encouraged by Camille Saint-Saëns, violist/composer Henri Casadesus founded the Société des Instruments Anciens in 1901. Casadesus played viola d'amore, his brother Marius played quinton, and additional Casadesus family members and friends played viols, keyboards, and plucked strings. Unlike other early period-instrument revivals, the Casadesus ensemble performed not only baroque pastiche, but also new works which they commissioned and composed for their rediscovered instruments. This disc presents the premiere recordings of music written in the first decades of the twentieth century by Henri Casadesus and Ottorino Respighi for a "quartet of viols."