Since the first appearance of this collection (on LP) in 1976 and its reissue, with additions, five years later, almost all these chamber works of Poulenc have received several further recordings but as far as the more popular late works (the sonatas for flute, oboe and clarinet) are concerned, these performers still hold their ground well. On the other hand, the two well-known larger works have been better done since: in the Trio for piano, oboe and bassoon (which has lost all trace of the wow I mentioned previously) the two wind instruments are all but on top of the microphone, and the overall tone is dry; and in the Sextet the piano is too prominent in relation to the rest—partly Poulenc's fault, perhaps, for so indulging his own instrument, as he also does in the Violin Sonata, in which Menuhin has to be content with a secondary role, though he attacks the ferocious finale (expressing frustrated rage at Lorca's death) with spirit. The only works not to have made fresh appearances in the catalogues (E&OE) are fortunately extremely well played here—the Sonata for two clarinets with brilliant panache by Portal (though I always feel sorry for the poor second clarinet, whose faithful-dog part in the Andante must be about as unrewarding as the viola part in Messiah); the Cello Sonata (with a delightfully skittish third movement) played by its dedicatee, Fournier; and the early Trio for brass which shows the composer at the height of his gaminerie and which, I suspect, was known to Malcolm Arnold. All these items, frivolous and serious (such as the Elegie for Dennis Brain), from Poulenc's 40-year output, constitute a useful and virtually comprehensive survey of his chamber music.'