It is hard to overestimate the influence that the Paris Conservatoire has had on flute playing worldwide. With the appointment of Gaston Crunelle as professor in 1941 (a post he held until 1969), the flute class entered a particularly fruitful time. He commissioned all four duos on this disc as morceaux de concours (test pieces) for the Conservatoire students, and each work was dedicated to him. The Sonatines by Dutilleux and Sancan are supple, subtle works which highlight sinuous line and clear texture, while the Bozza at first casts a shadowy, exotic spell before releasing us into a brighter, playful finale. Jolivet commented that his Chant de Linos was inspired by the cries and funeral lamentations of Greek mythology. The ritualistic, pagan quality of its rhythmic power is complemented by dark, suspenseful sections full of harmonic dissonance. The real war outside the composer's study breaks through at every turn. Messiaen, however, contemplating the infant Jesus in twenty different ways, asserts the eternal beauty and tranquillity still available to mankind. His birds sound busy but their innocent chirping is timeless and unchanging; and the exaltation at the heart of Mary's communion with God is surrounded at beginning and end by the musical representation of His love.