Ensemble Houthandel: Into The Woods
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: George Gershwin, Robert Muczynski, Leonard Bernstein, Malcolm Arnold, Samuel Barber
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Navis Classics
Magazine Review Date: 12/2015
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 54
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: NC15006
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Overture to 'Candide' |
Leonard Bernstein, Composer
Ensemble Houthandel Leonard Bernstein, Composer |
Summer Music |
Samuel Barber, Composer
Ensemble Houthandel Samuel Barber, Composer |
Quintet for Winds |
Robert Muczynski, Composer
Ensemble Houthandel Robert Muczynski, Composer |
(3) Shanties |
Malcolm Arnold, Composer
Ensemble Houthandel Malcolm Arnold, Composer |
Porgy and Bess - Selections |
George Gershwin, Composer
Ensemble Houthandel George Gershwin, Composer |
Author: Mark Pullinger
Chicago-born Robert Muczynski’s Quintet for Winds is a short, good-natured work, an ebullient Allegro risoluto giving way to a lyrical Andante. Sarah Vermeyen finds a wonderful breathy quality for the flute exchanges in the more substantial third movement, which ends in a high spirited romp to the finish line.
In more familiar repertoire, Barber’s Summer Music opens expansively here, but there’s admirably crisp articulation in the agitated middle section. A different American ‘Summertime’ appears in lengthy excerpts (18 minutes’ worth) from Porgy and Bess. Initially lacking in weight and (obviously) minus the text, Bill Holcombe’s arrangement occasionally drifts into blandness, but Gershwin’s toe-tapping tunes won me round.
In an entertaining booklet-note, the ensemble state that their aim is ‘to amuse, surprise and fascinate’. On that basis alone, this disc is a considerable success.
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