The wind quintet is
an interesting medium. Born in the late
18th century, it is sometimes
characterised as the wind player’s answer
to the string quartet. I find this misleading;
better to see it, I think, as a close
smaller relative of the ensembles found
in the serenades of Mozart and others.
After its late Classical origins, it
was more or less ignored by Romantic
composers, but has enjoyed a huge renaissance
in the 20th century, most
notably in the work of Neo-Classical
French composers, from Darius Milhaud
to Jean-Michel Damase. Casting a wider
glance, there are fine examples in the
music of Carl Nielsen, Paul Hindemith,
Luciano Berio, Samuel Barber, Malcolm
Arnold, and many, many more besides.
On the whole, composers have taken the
medium seriously, yet kept their music
for it light and entertaining.
Even Hindemith’s Kleine
Kammermusik of 1923 has the character
of a divertimento, and the Polish composers
represented on this excellent disc have
largely followed that example. The booklet
makes much of the composers’ Neo-Classicism;
well, there is a Classical profile in
the four-movement form of each work.
But if you’re expecting the playful
‘Back-to-Bach’ piquancy of Dumbarton
Oaks or Les Six, you could
be disappointed.
The playing is of a
high standard, all five members of the
quintet being wind principals in the
Cracow Philharmonic. However, they do
play like a group of excellent orchestral
musicians - with tight ensemble, generally
good intonation, fluent technique –
rather than a true chamber ensemble,
such as the superb Ma’a lot Ensemble
in Germany, or Nash Ensemble in the
UK.
What of the music?
First let it be said that it is all
well worth hearing, though the first
quintet, by Tadeusz Szeligowski, is
possibly the least immediately enjoyable,
with a slightly distracted air. But
it grew on me, and I enjoyed the twitchy,
slightly obsessive main theme of the
first movement. The Andante cantabile
is a rather despondent little slow movement,
followed by a hard-driven scherzo. That
rather tense mood persists into the
finale, which works out its problems
with a lengthy fugue.
Grażyna
Bacewicz’s quintet is the earliest work
here, dating from 1932 when she was
in her early twenties. It’s a cheerful
and inventive work, written for the
medium with an impressive assurance
for such a youthful composer. There’s
almost a moto perpetuo feel
about the quavers that pervade the first
movement. The Air which follows consists
of a dialogue between horn and bassoon,
while the higher instruments weave a
neutral background. The tiny Allegretto
has a folk-dance feel to it, while
the final Vivo is a very lively
affair, with enjoyably catchy rhythms
and airy melodies.
I’ll make no secret
of the fact that it was the next work,
the 1953 quintet by Wojcieh Kilar -
himself born in the year that the Bacewicz
quintet was first performed - that I
enjoyed most of the whole compilation.
Well written as the other works are,
Kilar has a real idiomatic feel for
the wind instruments, as well as an
ear for beautiful textures. He begins
with a restless Sinfonia, that alternates
a staccato rhythmic pattern with plaintive
lines for oboe and, later, horn. The
Presto is a scherzo with simple
and compound rhythms ingeniously superimposed,
and a folksy central interlude.
Kilar’s most striking
movement is the very beautiful Choral
varié, in which an
expressive phrase initiated by the bassoon
is pensively passed round the ensemble,
with very beautiful harmonies, often
shifting against pedal notes in one
or other instrument. Mirosław Płoski
struggles manfully with the very low
horn writing here. The whimsically
bitonal finale - I love the indication
un poco ridiculoso – ‘slightly
ridiculous’ - has strong echoes of Prokofiev
in his most cheeky vein, and the group
point up the articulation of the dotted
rhythms in alert fashion. There is a
grotesque cadenza, ending with a Gershwinesque
upward slide, as well as a regretful
backward glance at the chorale melody
of the third movement. The short coda
concludes with a throwaway ending that
understates the excellence of this closely
argued score.
The disc is completed
with Incrustations, a work for horn
and ensemble by Grażyna Bacewicz.
It is interesting to compare this work,
written in her final years, with the
quintet from her early twenties. However,
the piece does sit slightly uncomfortably
with the rest of the music on
the disc. It could be described as ‘sixties
impressionism’, with the emphasis on
atmosphere and tone colour rather than
musical continuity. The booklet purports
to explain the odd title, but to my
mind does no such thing, and it remains
a bit of a mystery! However, this is
a lovely piece in its way, with some
truly magical textures if you can cope
with the generally gnomic character;
try, for example, the beginning of track
14, with horn solo against deep percussion
and harp ripples. Something strangely
nautical about this.
Not a spectacular disc,
but an immensely worthwhile one, which
I find has repaid many repeated hearings.
The recording is exceptionally good,
given the notorious difficulty of achieving
a good recorded balance for wind quintets.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Cracow Philharmonic
Wind Quintet: (Krysztof Kawula (flute); Mariusz
Pędziałek (oboe); Jan Cielecki (clarinet);
Mirosław Płoski (horn); Zdisław
Bogacz (bassoon)); Instrumental Ensemble (for
Incrustations): (Mirosław Płoski (horn);
nna Sikorzak-Olek (harp); Jan
Pilch (percussion); Bogusława Ziegelheim
(violin); Agata Zając (cello); Marek Kalinowski
(contrabass)) 
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