MALVERN CONCERT CLUB

Their programme, mainly of works for wind ensemble, opened with Leoš Janá?ek’s Mládí (Youth), composed to celebrate the composer’s seventieth birthday in July 1924. This piece is a kaleidoscope of earthy exuberance, nostalgic reflection and plain good fun, all brilliantly captured in the virtuosic playing of the ensemble. There followed Francis Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano and Wind Instruments, composed in the 1930s, where a passionate, even Romantic expression sometimes breaks through the studied nonchalance of Poulenc’s neoclassical style. Here, the ensemble captured just the right levels of coolness or exuberance as the music demanded.

The second half opened with Paul Hindemith’s second Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24 No. 2 from 1922. Like many composers of his generation, including Janá?ek, Hindemith understood the imperative of finding an alternative to the tonal language of Wagner and Brahms, and his solution in the early Kammermusik was to create a world of bright, sometimes jazzy rhythms, extravagant instrumentation, humour, and a harmony that is essentially atonal. The ensemble demonstrated how entertaining this music can be when it is played with such panache and infectious enthusiasm.

Finally came Brahms’ Trio for piano, violin and horn, Op. 40. The clever programming brought out a certain synergy between this piece and Hindemith’s Kammermusik, both exploring unusual combinations of instruments and avoiding the sumptuous harmonic language that characterises much of Brahms’ chamber music. Quite unforgettable were the muffled funeral rhythms in the third movement, which the horn player and violinist were both able to intone as barely a whisper. All in all, this was a fascinating and hugely enjoyable concert, thanks in no small part to the virtuosity, discipline, perfect sense of ensemble and above all, musical intelligence of this outstanding ensemble.