The Tel Aviv Wind Quintet with guest pianist Aviram Reichert at the Eden-Tamir Music Center, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem

Aviram Reichert (Kang, Taeuk)

 

October 9th 2021 was a day of brilliant Autumn sunshine, bringing crowds of people to the verdant and buzzing village of Ein Kerem (Jerusalem). The hall of the Eden-Tamir Music Center was packed to capacity for the weekly Saturday morning concert, this event featuring the Tel Aviv Wind Quintet - Roy Amotz-flute, Dmitry Malkin-guest oboist, Danny Erdman-clarinet, Itamar Leshem-horn and Nadav Cohen-bassoon - with guest pianist Aviram Reichert. Welcoming the audience was Dr. Dror Semmel, the center's director. 

 

If the object of the divertimento was to entertain, the Tlvwq's playing of Harold Perry's wind quintet arrangement of Joseph Haydn's (1782) Divertimento in B flat Major Hob II:46 absolutely fit the bill. The performance abounded in energy, dynamic variety and touches of Haydnesque humour, its sense of well-being gift-wrapped in the ensemble's signature richness of timbre. Their playing of the "Chorale St. Antoni" (2nd movement) possibly written by Haydn's pupil Ignaz Pleyel (19th century publishers were known for attributing works to famous composers in order to increase sales) emerged noble and stately. 

 

Aviram Reichert joined Malkin, Erdman, Leshem and Cohen to perform L.v.Beethoven's Quintet for piano and winds in E flat major Op.16, a work composed by the composer in his 20s and clearly modelled after a quintet in the same key and scoring as that of Mozart (K. 452). From the extended slow Grave leading into the opening movement, one that happens to be as long as the two following movements combined, there was a solid sense of teamwork throughout - playing that was both effervescent and offering lyrical, appealing wind solos in the Andante (second) movement, (no Minuet and Trio) and culminating in the rondo of the Allegro movement. The latter's "hunting" theme, lively pace and cheerful, sunny disposition were punctuated by occasional reflective moments, but also filled with rollicking good humour. Sounding the most like an actual piano concerto, the Allegro ma non troppo movement makes for a sparkling and witty conclusion. The wind players' detail and large palette of textures and timbres made for interesting listening. Reichert's performance met the challenges of the quintet's marvellous piano role with involvement, expressiveness, buoyant- and exciting playing.

 

Israeli bassoonist Mordechai Rechtman (B.1926, Germany) is well known for his more-than 200 transcriptions and arrangements for wind quintet, wind instruments and large wind ensembles, several of them performed around the world under his own direction. The Tlvwq played his arrangement of the Allegro from Giuseppe Verdi's String Quartet in E minor (1873), the first movement of Verdi's only surviving chamber work and one that might not have been written at all were it not for the fact that the Naples production of "Aida" in early March of 1873 had to be delayed due to the sudden illness of the leading soprano. The Tlvwq players give expression and colour to Verdi's wonderful melodic ideas (occasional hints as to one or another of his operas), juxtaposing virtuosic sections with light textures and cantabile playing. Rechtman's setting gets pleasing results in the hands of first-rate players. The program also included three of J.S.Bach's Chorale Preludes as arranged by Dr. Uri Rom (Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv). Introducing the arrangements, two of which were premieres, Rom informed the audience that he has added counterpoint to them (as did Bach in his own new settings of works), with the wind quintet contexture offering more possibilities of interpolating counterpoint than the pipe organ. In "Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod", the sections of chorale melody were allotted to the flute (Amotz), reflecting Bach's chorale variation style. Listening to Rom's arrangement of "Wachet auf", the subject this time introduced by the horn (Leshem), I found myself wondering how propitious such copious counterpoint and ornamentation was to this much-loved work. 

 

The concert concluded with Austrian clarinettist/composer/arranger Reinhard Gutschy's arrangement for piano and winds of George Gershwin's 1924 "Rhapsody in Blue", the work bringing Gershwin fame as “the man who had brought jazz into the concert hall". This was an exciting work to end the Ein Kerem concert, indeed experiential for both the players and audience, as it opened with the clarinet (Erdman) in the ever-thrilling upward-sweeping ribbon of uninterrupted pitches (the glissando that became an iconic sound of American music), unleashing a floodgate of vivid ideas blending seamlessly into one another. The pulsing syncopated rhythms and showy music give way to a warm, expansive melody, the lush Andantino moderato section, with Gershwin at his most lyrical and catchy. Currently Associate Professor of Piano at Seoul National University, College of Music, this was Aviram Reichert's second rendition of the piece with the Tel Aviv Wind Quintet. Engaging his brilliant technique, sense of colour, rhythmic flexibility and feel for sweet sentimentality to the cause, his playing created the impression of spontaneous improvisation the composer had intended. (Actually, much of the solo part at the premiere was improvised by Gershwin, one page of the score simply directing bandleader Paul Whiteman to wait for a nod to continue.) The Tlvwq players gave expression to the work's full-on energy, its whimsy, its jazzy slick and charm.