Advertising themselves as one of the few black woodwind quintets may have attracted a few of the interested to sold-out Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge on Saturday night, but it was Imani Winds' brilliant performances that earned them standing ovations.
Listening to woodwind quintet music is not a casual endeavor because each of the five voices - flute, oboe, bassoon, French horn and clarinet - not only have their own distinct sonority, but the players are often pursuing independent paths that weave in and out from foreground to middle ground to background in constantly changing patterns.
If music by a string quartet is like a piece of smooth, lustrous silk, woodwind quintet music is like a hand-woven, heavily textured Harris tweed.
Although an important part of Imani's mission is to expand the repertoire of wind quintet music by writing their own and commissioning new works, the literature is so limited that it's hard to have a woodwind quintet concert without playing at least one of the standard masterpieces.
Playing both Paul Hindemith's 1923 "Kleine Kammermusic," Op. 24, No. 2, with its odd combination of militarism and exuberant dancing, and John Harbison's twisted 1979 "Quintet for Winds," that has a push-pull ballet and a sarcastic middle movement, Imani delivered supreme confidence and vibrant virtuosity.
There was also a light-filled "Danza de Mediodia," by the gifted Mexican composer Arturo Marquez, and "La Nourveau Orleans," written by Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin, best known for his scores for big-time Hollywood movies.
But the best music was written by Imani's own musician-composers. The first was oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz's argumentative "Call," which began the concert.
Then, to wrap up the evening in a lush, warm cloak, Imani delivered a wonderful performance of horn player Jeff Scott's arrangement of Astor Piazzola's "Contrabajissimo."
Bravo.
© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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