The Quintet for flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet and bassoon (‘em forma de Chôros’) was written in Paris in 1928. It is thus contemporary with the main
Chôros series and could easily have been included in it. Multi-sectional, alternately lyrical and forceful, spiky, chaotic, and wilful, the work was indeed better received than many of the
Chôros themselves, and has been much performed since its first hearing on 14 March 1930 at the Salle Chopin, Paris, a concert at which Edgard Varèse also directed performances of his own works.
from notes by Simon Wright © 1989
