Pleasant breezes from brass and winds
Thursday evening at Chamber Music Milwaukee, even Beethoven settled for sweet music that scored no philosophical points beyond idle charm. This round, Ludwig van simply made pairs of clarinets, bassoons and horns sound elegant. Of course, clarinetists Todd Levy and Steve Ahearn, bassoonists Theodore Soluri and Beth Giacobassi, and horn players Gregory Flint and Dietrich Hemann had everything to do with that elegance. In the Sextet in E-flat, Opus 71, Beethoven loads up on the speedy runs and gives everyone a chance to show off, and every one did in a classy way — all touchdowns, no end-zone dances.
One of the great pleasures of this series, on this occasion focused on brass and winds, lies in hearing music you would never hear anywhere else. A particular example is Adolf Busch’s (1891-1952) unpublished Divertimento, Opus 62b, from 1946, for flute (Caen Thomason-Redus), english horn (Margaret Butler) and clarinet (Levy). The three short movements are untroubled fun, to hear and I suspect to play. The players pointed out the contrasts of chattering staccato lines and flowing ones. They neatly balanced the voices and kept the pacing brisk and rhythms neat. The Baroque vibe of the piece comes from the english horn part, which resesmbles a basso continuo line. Butler, a player of great skill and greater taste, alertly phrased and articulated her line in relation to the top melody. In all music, and especially in this sort of quasi-Baroque texture, it’s not just about playing your part. It’s all about meshing with the other parts..
Trumpeters Kevin Hartman and James Nufer, Flint (horn), trombonist Samuel Schlosser and bass trombonist Mark Hoelscher assembled for Victor Ewald’s 1902 Brass Quintet No. 1 and four dances by Teilman Susato (1510-1570). The refinement of their playing — the subtle dynamics and coloration — in no way diminished its vigor. The subtleties added bar-by-bar interest to their gleaming, glamorous baseline sound. Percussion Thomas Wetzel added a dancey side drum to the first and last of four of Susato’s Renaissance dances. in which Hartman played piccolo trumpet. John Iveson’s arranged these unspecified works, no doubt drawn from popular sources.
Thomason-Redus opened with Debussy’s Syrinx. This 1913 flute solo (adapted later for various instruments) is about the sensuality of sound. Thomason-Redus released the perfume of the thing with a luminous resonance that made the music sound very close to the ear. He recolored it bar by bar, from breathy pastels to more focused, highly saturated hues. The music is capricious, and he did well to contrast its languid repose and sudden, fleeting agitation. I especially admired his patience in leaving space between phrases, to allow the sound to decay fully before he moved on. Just hearing the last wisp of sound finally disappear within the big space of UWM’s Bader Concert Hall was a great pleasure.
Sometimes, pleasure is all there is to music. Thursday, pleasure was enough.
Photos of brass and clarinet parts courtesy of Gold Coast Brass & Woodwinds, Southport, Queensland, Australia.
