Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)

A feast for the ears from wind quintet

 

March 15, 2006

Section: FLORIDA WEST

Page: E4

   GAYLE WILLIAMS CORRESPONDENT

 

Take five superb wind musicians, each a leader and member of the New York Philharmonic, and set them to the task of playing a program of the top masterpieces of wind-quintet music.

 

Are the odds good that you'll have a most happy experience? You bet! Actually, Sunday's program at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall opened with only four of the winds in Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major, K. 452.

 

Sherry Sylar, oboe; Mark Nuccio, clarinet; Judith LeClair, bassoon; and Erik Ralske, horn, collaborated with Philharmonic pianist Jonathan Feldman in an elegant performance in which the five musicians displayed taste and sensitivity as they amiably passed phrases to one another.

 

Mozart used his incomparable melodic gifts in everything he composed, but this quintet is a particular gem, and it was played with great fluidity by these musicians.

 

Jumping from the best of the late 18th century to what is considered by many to be the music of the 21st century's most brilliant composer for wind quintet, we were treated to a remarkable performance of David Maslanka's Quintet No. 3 for Winds.

 

Stepping off the page of J.S. Bach's chorales, Maslanka uses two chorales ("Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht" and "Ermuntre dich") as both inspiration and musical fodder in a three-movement work that is part perpetual motion/industrial music with insistent repetitive rhythmic figures and luscious, soaring melodies of symphonic proportions.

 

Flutist Robert Langevin completed the complement of five winds, which, in the hands of Maslanka, always sound five times as large when filling a hall -- not to mention the considerable talents of the musicians themselves. This is some of the most challenging music for wind quintet, and these five played it with aplomb.

 

That can be said as well for "Six Bagatelles" by Gyorgy Ligeti, which followed intermission. Each movement is slightly off-kilter, with asymmetrical rhythms and phrases that stick in your mind. Technically demanding, but lots of fun, the music hustles quickly by, leaving us wanting just a little more.

 

Francis Poulenc, also known for the tongue-in-cheek humor of his music, was represented by both his Sonata for Flute and Piano and his Sextet for Piano and Winds.

 

Langevin, principal flute of the New York Philharmonic, possesses a silky-smooth tone that was put to good use in the delicacies of the sonata. From graceful to gleeful, his fluid lines and feather-light articulation made this more thoughtful music of Poulenc a supreme pleasure.

 

The sextet, on the other hand, opens as if we are all at a raucous party. But the mood turns quickly, as it often does with Poulenc, and moves through soulful earnestness, aristocratic pride and heroic majesty. It was all good.

 

 

 

 

From “The New York Sun” on March 15, 2005:

                                                  

From the Mayor of Tainan, Taiwan on December 3, 2004:

“...Your last performance has been an unforgettable experience and is highly appreciated by many music lovers here in Tainan.  We believe that music is powerful.  It can travel beyond boundaries to people in all parts of the world.  Through music, we are able to appreciate the beauties of different cultures.  Your last visit to our city has been a great success.  The presentation you brought us with our very own Tainan City Symphony Orchestra was more than fantastic.  Thank you again for travelling so far to visit us.  It was our greatest honor to have you here.  We are looking to your return and to hearing your performance again in the very near future.”