Resident Artist Series Recital March 30, 2010 7:30pm Faye Spanos Concert Hall on the campus of University of the Pacific

The Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet presents a Resident Artist Series Recital March 30, 2010 in Faye Spanos Concert Hall. The program includes the Quintette pour instruments à vent  by Taffanel.  Claude-Paul Taffanel (1844–1908), virtuoso flutist, teacher, and conductor is regarded as the father of the modern French school of flute-playing. Through an organization he founded, the Société de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments à Vent, he organized concerts and urged composers to expand the wind music repertoire.  In the spirit of that encouragement, PAWQ performs two recent additions to the woodwind repertoire, One is Three Piece Suite by Ohio composer Ralph Turek. A respected composer and the author of widely used college textbooks on music theory, Turek is also a pianist and sound synthesist who possesses an extensive repertoire of jazz, standards, and popular tunes.   This influence is easily heard and enjoyed in this playful work, with movements titled Scherzo, Free Form, and Jam.  The other new piece is an arrangement of some Debussy piano duets, the Six Épigraphes Antiques.   While Debussy did not leave a work specifically for a woodwind quintet, the arrangement of this Impressionist gem masterfully captures and highlights the unique characteristics and colors of a woodwind quintet.  Please join the Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet for their last on-campus performance before they travel to Panama as Resident Guest Artists at the Festival de Música de Panamá, Alfredo de Saint Malo.

Program:

Quintette pour instruments à vent                       Claude-Paul Taffanel (1844-1908)

Allegro con moto

Andante

Vivace

Three Piece Suite                                              Ralph Turek

Scherzo

Free Form

Jam

Two Pieces from Six Épigraphes Antiques         Claude Debussy (1862-1918) arranged by Adrienne Inglis

I.                    Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d’été -modéré, dans le style d’une Pastoral

II.                 Pour que la nuit soit procipe -lent et expressif

Quintette pour instruments à vent …….Claude-Paul Taffanel (1844-1908)
   Allegro con moto
  Andante
   Vivace

Break

Three Piece Suite….. Ralph Turek
    Scherzo
    Free Form
    Jam

Three Shanties …….Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
   Allegro con brio
   Allegretto semplice
   Allegro vivace

The Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet will also share some selections of Panamanian folk songs and dances as a special preview to their May 2010 residency at the Alfredo De San Malo Music Festival in Panama City, Panama, Central America.

Program:
Quintet No. 3 in F-Dur, Guiseppe Maria Cambini (1746-1825)

The French Quintet, Ron Caviani (1931-?)

Quintet, John Steinmetz

“La Nouvelle Orleans,”  Lalo Schifrin (1932- )

The members of the Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet wear many hats:  that of professor, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and also that of soloist.  This past season, our members have been active performing solos with orchestras in the region and beyond.

Thomas Nugent is played the Strauss Concerto for Oboe in D major, op. 144 the Sacramento Philharmonic, 8pm February 21, 2009 at the Community Center Theater.

Patricia Shands performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Stockton Symphony to great acclaim. ”Her performance of Mozart’s  Clarinet Concerto was an impressive display of musical rhetoric, as she literally breathed new life into the work. Demonstrating precise control across the various registers of the instrument, Shands played with an imaginative palette of sound from the opening theme onward.”  The Stockton Record

Mathew Krejci was a soloist with the University of the Pacific Conservatory orchestra for their opening concert, performing Griffes Poem for flute and orchestra.

Nicolasa Kuster traveled to Kansas in November to perform the Mozart Concerto in Bb with the Wichita Symphony. “Nicolasa Kuster’s performance of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto was full of both refinement and high spirits….the soloist’s delightful interpretation….was a delight to hear, and Kuster’s cadenzas were breathtaking both for the beauty of her playing and the wit and wisdom of her use of silence between phrases.”  The Wichita Eagle

Newest member, bassoonist Nicolasa Kuster, joined the established ensemble of Mathew Krejci – flute, Thomas Nugent – oboe, Patricia Shands – clarinet, Jennie Blomster – horn.  Works performed were a sprightly Franz Danzi classical quintet, Samuel Barber’s inimitable Summer Music, a charming woodwind quintet version of Six Cuban Dances by  Ignacio Cervantes and John Harbison’s dramatic and acrobatic Quintet.  

After presenting a classical introduction with Franz Danzi’s (1763-1826) Op. 56, No. 2 in g minor,  the quintet performed the quintessential American woodwind quintet, Barber’s Summer Music.  Pulitzer Prize winning Samuel Barber (1910-1981) masterfully crafted this work with romantic structures and sensibilities, creating a gem for the woodwind repertoire.  This supremely lyrical, rhythmically complex, and harmonically rich work evokes images of a simpler time: trains in the distance, picnics, lazy afternoons, lemonade sipped in rocking chairs, clanging trolleys, and love.

Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905) wrote Six Cuban Dances for piano in 1898; they blend the European piano style of Chopin and Liszt with the rhythms and songs of Cervantes’ native Cuba.  A charming salon style is the result of this mix and hearing it with the voices of wind instruments is a unique treat.  The titles to the dances are: 1. La Tarde Esta Amorosa (How Charming the Evening) 2. Mis Amores (My Loves) 3. Ditirambica (Homage to Bacchus) 4. Tintilla de Rota (The Wine of Rota) 5. No Llores Mas (Weep No Longer) 6. De Mil Amores (With All My Heart)

The concert ended with the famed Harbison Quintet.  John Harbison (1938- ), another Pulitzer Prize winning composer, spins a web of timbres, textures, and instrumental characters, mixing the colors of the woodwind instruments and horn in an unparalleled way. This incredible masterwork is considered by many to be the most difficult work for woodwind quintet. The work is certainly an audience favorite, rarely heard in live performance.

A highlight from the past year was a performance at the International Double Reed Society conference on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.  The concert, held in the beautiful De Jong Concert Hall, was a featured event at the conference.  A shining gem on the performance was  Voile de lune composed by fellow University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music professor Dr. François Rose.  Also on the program was Conrad De Jong’s Variations on a Spanish La Folia.  The concert was enthusiastically received by a very appreciative audience.  Here is the group in rehearsal (David Grainger on bassoon.)