Above: Ensemble Q- Huw Jones (oboe), David Mitchell (bassoon), Trish Dean (cello), Paul Dean (clarinet), Peter Luff (horn), Virginia Taylor (flute). Featured image: Ensemble Q Co-Artistic Directors Trish and Paul Dean.
In the place of its typical sprawling national tour for featured artists, Musica Viva presented a streamed concert of exciting wind quintet and cello music by Ensemble Q from the QSO studios in Southbank, Brisbane.
The diversity of this programme and complexity of works included also showcased the hard work and hours or lifetimes of preparation the wind and cello virtuosi have put in to master and be able seamlessly present.
This is preparation and collective skill currently deprived of a live airing in the currently national and global climate. The scintillating series of works in this programme spanned music history from Beethoven to a work from 2018 by this ensemble’s Co-Artistic Director, Paul Dean.
An overall excellent commitment throughout this programme to offering a variegated and very accessible, penetrating painting of atmosphere despite each work’s place in music history or world culture was a winner here.
Excellent wind playing drenched in drama and atmosphere began with the solo-line miniature Syrinx from Claude Debussy. This fitting prelude to the atmospheres and wind effects in the remainder of the concert was delivered with svelte elegance and poise in the caricature by flautist Virginia Taylor.
Going back in time to Beethoven, and increasing the ensemble to a trio, the timbral combination of oboe, clarinet and cello was successfully balanced. Its varied voices spoke well as one voice in the statement if Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro ‘La ci darem il mano’ theme.
Above : Paul Dean’s ‘Concerto for Cello and Wind Quintet’ (2018) concluded this live stream concert.
The ornamentation of this popular operatic tune andthe variations with elaborate filigree and familiar fragments were tastefully presented by upper voice winds (Huw Jones, oboe and Paul Dean, clarinet), in charming conversation with Ensemble Q’s Co-Artistic Director Trish Dean’s cello.
This joyful playing highlighted the skill of these players and saw Beethoven’s talent for writing sets of variations extend to wind ensemble. The switch to minore mode featuring Trish Dean’s cello voice was a beautifully expressing moment.
As the programme ramped up to wind quintet mode, the trio from the Beethoven were joined by flute and new wind players David Mitchell, horn and Peter Luff, horn.
The quintet gave impressive rendering of the demanding and contrasting twentieth-century quintets by Ligeti (his Six Bagatelles from 1953) and also the Summer Music Op 31 by Samuel Barber, written in 1955.
This inclusion of such major works from the wind quintet canon was a master stroke from Ensemble Q’s Artistic Directors, Paul and Trish Dean.
These exciting and colourful works championed the genius of structure as well as modernism of these major musical personalities of last century. Ligeti’s iconic, characterised and clever sculpturing across the group in his finely chiselled, brief movements was a welcome exposure fo us to classic modernism. I found it a true highlight of this programme
These two works by major twentieth-century figures turning to ensemble writing for winds were separated by a movement for cello by another true individual of the period.
Above : Flautist Virginia Taylor, whose solo playing began the concert with Debussy’s ‘Syrinx’.
It was refreshing to have instrumental music by Benjamin Britten, instead of his more often heard vocal or choral works, performed between these two quintets in the programme.
Trish Dean gave a measured and compelling reading of the Ciaconna from Britten’s second suite for solo cello. With variations on an original, angular and symmetrical theme at this end of the concert, the work showed all the ingenuity of Beethoven, stretching the instrumental gesturing to modern extremes .
This movement’s complexity of expression and technique were well contained and the momentum was compelling as Trish Dean progressed through the ciaconna.
More sheer atmosphere and clarity of writing for the wind quintet and for the cello concluded this work. Paul Dean’s Concerto for Cello and Wind Quintet (2018) demonstrated the clarity and openness of his style and the evolution of modern composition for winds.
Dean’s combination of cello accent with a fine knowledge of the wind quintet palette resulted in a capable use of all resources. He was able to convey calm, and an engaging peace with and within the environment inspiring it. In the concert environment this music presented us with a warm clarity imbued with a broad wind colours.
Paul Dean’s understanding of this ensemble and enthusiasm for the cello voice resulted in a gentle concerto tone-poem for our time. The performance of this recent work showed complete understanding of his creative intent.
This was a joyous event championing the versatility of ensemble wind music to the distanced but no doubt appreciative Musica Viva live stream audience. Its modification from live touring to the streamed event was still a success and well worth viewing.