Concert programme — Haydn, Danzi, Milhaud & others — Concert Programmes

attributed to Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Divertimento (Feldpartita) in B flat Hob.II.46 (c1780)

arranged for wind quintet by Harold Perry

1 Allegro 2 St Antoni Chorale 3 Menuetto 4 Allegro

Franz Danzi (1763-1826)

Wind Quintet in B flat Op.56 No.1 (1821)

1 Allegretto 2 Andante con moto 3 Menuetto 4 Allegretto

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)

La cheminée du Roi René Op.205 (1939)

1 Cortège 2 Aubade 3 Jongleurs 4 La Malousinglade 5 Joutes sur l’Arc

6 Chasse à Valabre 7 Madrigal-Nocturne

Jacques Ibert (1890-1962)

Trois pièces brèves (1930)

1 Allegro 2 Andante 3 Allegro scherzando

Gustav Holst (1870-1934)

Wind Quintet in A flat Op.14 (1903)

1 Allegro moderato 2 Adagio 3 Minuet 4 Allegro

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Opus Number Zoo

1 Barn Dance 2 The Fawn 3 The Grey Mouse 4 Tom Cats

Like much wind music of its time, the Divertimento in B flat traditionally attributed to Haydn - but now believed to be by his pupil Ignaz Pleyel - was intended to be played out of doors. Or so its original instrumentation (for two each of oboes and horns, three bassoons and serpent) and the alternative title of Feldpartita seem to suggest. Forgotten for nearly a hundred years, it emerged out of complete obscurity when the Haydn biographer Pohl drew it to the attention of Brahms, who was so struck by the movement headed “Corale St Antoni” that he was moved to adopt the old melody as the basis of his Variations on a Theme of Haydn. In the Divertimento the St Antoni Chorale is featured as one of two central movements between quicker opening and closing pieces.

If the standard wind quintet ensemble (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn) was established by the Czech-French composer Anton Reicha, his German contemporary Franz Danzi did much to consolidate it. His three Wind Quintets Op.56 (which were followed by six more a few years later) are among the most entertaining of their kind. As Op.56 No.1 in B flat so charmingly confirms, the composer is never short of a good idea or the means to colour it effectively. Although the ensemble is clearly led by the oboe, every instrument shares in the melodic interest and none of them is excluded from a virtuoso episode near the end of the rondo finale.

The Cheminée du Roi René (King René’s Fireplace) is a favourite picnic spot in Aix-en-Provence and has been ever since the fifteenth century when René d’Anjou took to sitting there to soak up the winter sunshine. As a native of Aix who always retained an affection for Provence, Milhaud adopted it as the title for a suite based on music for a film (Cavalcade d’amour) set in Provence in the time of the troubadours. Making use of old Provençal tunes, the seven short movements trace a day in the life of King René and his court - an introductory Cortège, an Aubade or morning serenade, an entertainment by jesters, a diversion to the village of Malousinglade (where Milhaud had his house), jousting by boat on the River Arc, hunting at the Château de Valabre, and a peacefully lyrical Madrigal-Nocturne as night falls.

For a composer with a sense of humour and a willingness to entertain rather than to impress, Paris in the ’twenties was the place to be. Although - unlike Milhaud, a close contemporary and fellow student at the Conservatoire - Ibert was not a member of the Groupe des Six, he could be as irreverent and as amusing as the best of them. The Trois pièces brèves gave him nothing like the scope for satire as his famously outrageous Divertissement but the outer movements, separated by a delicate little Andante, are no less witty for that.

Anyone who didn’t know that the Wind Quintet in A flat was by Holst would have trouble identifying its composer or even his nationality. The eloquently lyrical opening theme introduced by clarinet is a little reminiscent of Brahms and the Wagnerian treatment of the same melody by the horn later on also suggests a German romantic orientation. Brahms echoes again in the slow movement, where there is perhaps just a hint of Elgar near the end. The first unmistakable sign of an Elgarian influence occurs in the trio section of the Minuet, between its curiously neo-classical outer sections. It is only in the last movement, in the slightly folk opening theme and some of its variations, that the composer definitively reveals his English identity. Written at a transitional point in Holst’s development, the Wind Quintet was lost until the manuscript was re-discovered seventy-five years later.

As for Opus Number Zoo - an early product of a brilliantly career brought to an end only last year - it tells its own story, literally.