Eastwind Blows Warm & Fresh
Friday,
What better way to banish the gloom of a soaking summer rain than with a Mozart wind trio? The B-flat Divertimento, K. 439a, is 15 minutes of pure Mozartean sunshine, at least when played with the poise and limpid tone of the Eastwind Consort in its Millennium Stage appearance on Wednesday. It was easy to forget the storm outside when faced with such sensibly gauged phrasing, such a relaxed sense of musical conversation.
If clarinetist Jim Bryla's liquid tone slightly dominated the ensemble, that was a function of Mozart's score. There was ample opportunity to enjoy the delicate filigree of Sara Stern's flute playing and Eric Dircksen's rounded, exceedingly mellow treatment of the bassoon part.
The ensemble turned in a warm, vigorous reading of Bach's Trio Sonata in
E-flat that, in a skillful (uncredited) arrangement
for modern winds, sounded more like a piece of 20th-century neo-baroque than an
actual 18th-century composition. Contemporary composer Robert Washburn flirts
with baroque forms -- while subtly referencing Weill,
Poulenc, Stravinsky, jazz and medieval dance -- in
his attractive and economically crafted Three Pieces for Three Woodwinds. The
consort played Washburn's piece with the same clarity, concentration and
handsome tone it brought to the program's two other contemporary works: Lamar Stringfield's slight (if virtuosic) "Chipmunks"
and Robert Muczynski's witty, angular retread of
Copland-esque
-- Joe Banno
[The Bach Trio Sonata arrangement was done by Pierre Poulteau.]