I attended the Diehn Concert Series “Windscape, Wind Quintet with Kasparov & Lutsyshyn” on Monday, February 25, 2013 in the Chandler Recital Hall. The hall had sold out; the turnout was more than I and the event staff had expected. An outstanding job was done by the event personnel, who added chairs to the balcony sections in order to seat more patrons. I arrived in the hall at 7:35 pm dressed in casual business attire. The hall setting was bright with a split level appearance in a single level design. The hall’s white upper level walls and light wood lower sections provide a clean, open, and awakening atmosphere. Before the concert even started the small venue gave a sense of closeness to the event unlike a large concert venues similar to Farm Bureau Amphitheater.
The performers had two stage settings one at the start was organized with five chairs and music stands formed in a horseshoe shape with the open end facing towards the audience and the post intermission change was to move the top position and move in the piano. An event staff member provided an overview of the event to help students understand the works being performed. I thought this was very helpful for me especially while identify the variations in style and creates a more open minded approach rather than just sitting there listening to the performers.
The performers entered and the wind qunitet was made up of four gentlemen wearing dark suits and a lady wearing a red dress. The instruments used during the first segment were in the aerophones category for musical instrumentation. The lady played the flute and had two different styles she used during the performance. The gentlemen each were isolated to their individual instruments being the oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn. Post intermission, the lady and the flute did not return, but a piano player was introduced for the last three musical pieces. The event staff provided narration on the reasons for the use of the piano which was based on the way music had been written to create multiple dynamics for the accompaniment of piano with the wind instruments.
The first arrangement was six pieces titled Six Bagatelles by Gyorgy Ligti. A narrator explained the writer's use of few notes with varying pitches. All six of pieces were extremely dissonant style with a staccato way of being played. The first five pieces were unappealing to me. The sixth piece Malto vianco Capricciose had smooth transitions creating an easier listening experience. All six pieces are played with a combination of adiago and presto tempos, and the performers’ music play seemed to sequence one another with a forte dynamic. I could not determine any texture based on the shortness and rapid changes in the playing of each piece, but I easily identified some segments being used in commercial mediums.
The second arrangement was La flute enchantee by Marice Ravel. The narrator describes the piece as a story about a “slave girl hears her lover playing on the street and the flute kisses her on the cheek.” The