The opening concert of the International Spring Orchestra Festival was held at the Manoel Theatre and consisted of music for wind ensemble and piano and performed by The Reigate Wind Ensemble, consisting of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn.
The opening work in this concert was Samuel Barber’s Summer Music, Op. 31.
This piece evokes the feelings, if not the pictures, of warm months and unhurried days and the work is divided in two sections.
Horn and bassoon open the piece with gently undulant rhythms interlaced with delicate arabesques from flute and clarinet.
The oboe then sings a broad, flowing melody before the ensemble begins a passage of crisp staccato chords in quicker tempo.
The second part is occupied with a breezy dance in catchy rhythms initiated by the oboe.
The dance pauses twice for a reminiscence of the motto phrase before bringing this delightful evocation of summer to a sunny close.
The wind ensemble was then joined by the Maltese pianist, Erik Azzopardi for Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat, K. 452. The Largo introduction begins with a piano solo.
The lively, vibrant and expressive playing of this young ensemble added charm
It continues, however, with a response, in which the phrases are handed off as in a relay from one soloist to another.
The Larghetto movement is typical of the second movement of other Mozart pieces: soft and gentle, yet still engaging.
The Allegretto movement is a sonata-rondo of the kind Mozart used as the finale of many of the piano concertos.
The quintet was unique in both its choice of instruments and in the use of only one wind instrument per part. The wind ensemble features highly diverse timbers and sonorities.
The next work to be performed was the premier of a sextet by the Dutch composer and arranger Marlijn Helder, Sextet for Piano and Woodwind Quintet. It was awarded first prize in the third International Spring Orchestra Festival composition competition.
The sextet consists of two contrasting parts, the Cantabile and the Cabaletta. This is a form particularly favoured in arias in 19th-century Italian opera.
In the Cantabile part, all the instruments are used in a principally melodic manner, both solo and in ensemble form.
The lines are grand and the harmonies sometimes fierce. In the Cabaletto part the rhythm intensifies, lines are more condensed and the atmospheric changes are quick and concise.
Particularly impressive is the way in which the dialogue exists between all the instruments, the texture of the music changing to constantly engages the audience’s attention.
Debussy’s La fille aux Cheveux de Lin, originally written for piano, is a portrait of The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.
The version played for this concert was for a quintet of wind instruments and the quality and timbre of the wind instruments gave this well-known work an air of gaiety and lighthearted humour.
Following the Debussy was a performance of Oliver Knussen’s Three Fantasies, a short work that is full of contrasts. The concert concluded with Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet, Op.100. This work consists of three movements.
Poulenc considered this to be a homage to the wind instruments and the three movements are built around the interplay of contrasting moods.
The lively, vibrant and expressive playing of this young ensemble added charm to these pieces, presenting a spectrum of works for wind ensemble rarely heard in Malta.
This resulted in a enjoyable and interesting evening.