The Chamber Music No. 1 is a late work dating from much the same time as the Nonet (1959). It is scored for clarinet, string trio, harp and piano and finds Martinu at his most inventive and imaginative. Its sonorities are resourceful and its atmosphere strong. Rondi or Les rondes, a septet for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, two violins and piano, is much earlier and dates from 1930. Les rondes is subtitled Suite des danses and is an entertaining and inventive piece, in much the same vein as La revue de cuisine. Neither Chamber Music No. 1 nor Les rondes is otherwise available on record, which enhances the value of this issue. There are, of course, plenty of versions of La revue de cuisine and the Nonet for wind and strings; the Dartington Ensemble likewise couple them together on their Hyperion recording.
The playing of the Danish ensemble is expert and full of life, but the recording is somewhat handicapped by the small acoustic. There is not really enough space around the sound, so that the texture is not as well ventilated as I would like. The Nonet is far too bright and claustrophobic. None the less the record deserves a qualified recommendation for the sake of the items new to the catalogue which are a real delight.'