PREVIEW: "Mostly Music from Philadelphia" by the Del'Arte Wind Quintet

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PREVIEW: "Mostly Music from Philadelphia" by the Del'Arte Wind Quintet

POSTED: Friday, January 14, 2011, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Music

In the vast world of chamber music, the woodwind quintet genre contains some of the best-written music. The combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon creates a canvas of enormous potential for composers, and lets each instrument shine through.

On Sun. Jan. 16, the Del'Arte Wind Quintet will perform five excellent works composed for woodwind quintet at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Del'Arte consists of faculty members at the University of Delaware (flutist Eileen Grycky, oboist Lloyd Shorter, clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt, hornist John David Smith, and bassoonist Jon Gaarder) and it is the ensemble-in-residence there. The group is calling the program "Mostly Music from Philadelphia" because four of the five composers were or still are Philadelphians. Samuel Barber's Summer Music, composed and premiered in 1956, is now a standard repertoire piece for the woodwind quintet genre. Lush harmonies, pastoral melodies, and virtuoso parts for all instruments make this work an audience favorite — even in winter. Temple professor Cynthia Folio composed Seven Aphorisms ten years ago and dedicated it to the Del'Arte quintet. Based on aphorisms by Mark Twain, Aristotle, and others, this work is sure to become a standard. "Quattro Tempi"from 1968 is the one work on the program by a non-Philadelphian, Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson. The program rounds off with University of the Arts professor Evan Solot's "Nepenthe", composed in 1994, and freelance composer and clarinetist Arne Running's amusing "Aria and Quodlibet" from 2006. In the three-minute "Quodlibet," try to guess all the excerpts Running quotes (hint: they range from Bach to Tchaikovsky).

Eva Pierrou

Posted 2011-01-14 16:52:49

What wonderful writing!
It makes me want to hear this music, and meet this terrific writer!
Thank you for publishing her articles!
A musician

Cynthia Folio

Posted 2011-01-16 20:10:59

Thanks, Elivi, for your enthusiasm about today's concert and your kind words about my composition. I agree that they had a nice selection of repertoire. The quintet played fabulously too!
Nice to meet you...

Posted by Elivi Varga @ 4:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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