Ibert's Morceaux for bassoon and piano comes to light

Works for bassoon and piano by major composers are not exactly common so the re-discovery of a short piece by Jacques Ibert must count as a significant discovery. Ibert wrote Morceau as a sight-reading exercise for the Paris Conservatoire's annual solo competition for bassoon players in 1921. But following its use there, the work seems to have entirely languished.

It came to light because Ryan Romine, professor of bassoon at Shenandoah Conservatory came across the score in a private collection and realised that it wasn't an arrangement, it wasn't Ibert's only other piece for bassoon and piano (the 1953, Carignane) but was a new piece. You can hear it performed by Romine and pianist Allison Shinninck in the video, taken at the 2017 International Double Reed Society Conference, held in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The work is available from TrevCo Music.