premiere, Windscape, at Manhattan School of Music
First performance: February 23, 2022 Greenfield Hall, Manhattan School of Music; Windscape: Tara Helen O’Connor, Randall Ellis, Alan R. Kay, David Jolley and Frank Morelli
Quintet for Winds was written during the 2020-21 season for Windscape, the virtuoso faculty woodwind quintet of the Manhattan School of Music. Cast in four movements, it adapts some traditional chamber music forms, but seeks a modern harmonic sensibility as well. I strove, in the first movement, for an ebullient sound, a quality I have always associated with this particular instrumental combination, and the bright flavor influenced the shaping of motivic gestures and phrasing. The second movement, nonetheless, balances the upbeat mood of the first with more sober lines, sometimes declamatory, often pensive. The longer phrases of the opening give way to shorter, more angular outbursts sometimes incorporating clarinet multiphonics (chords) to expand the timbral palette. This movement, the most abstract of the four, is followed by the most direct: a light Scherzo, cast in a traditional A-B-A mold, with sections clearly delineated.
The fourth movement, a rambunctious finale, may be recognized as a sonata-rondo, with a jocular first theme, introduced and then restated periodically in the clarinet part, and a lilting second theme for the full ensemble. There are also brief canons interspersed throughout the movement, and in the coda, there are flashbacks and allusions to the first and second movements. The work lasts approximately 20 minutes.
LK
Reviews
“Its four movements all offer the listener distinctive pleasures, whether that be the experimental sounds in the second movement, the ‘majesty’ of which is unconventional but real, with some striking moments of grandeur and solemnity, or the virtuosic excitement of the closing ‘Prestissimo’…”
“The opening movement is ‘ebullient,’ as Karchin asserts; the finale is lively and genial. Windscape plays the quintet with precision and delicacy.”
“The Quintet for Winds….is consistently fresh, playful, and exuberant through its four movements. The second, Maestoso, is a compelling juxtaposition of stark linear statements with extroverted outbursts. For my money, the Scherzando is extremely memorable, with its wit and “twittering machine” aspect. It also has a trio that itself is tripartite!”
Discs
Gallery