The story of how the Solstice Wind Quintet got its name offers some clues as to what to expect from its debut CD, Solstice Wind Quintet Live. According to the liner notes, the quintet was first formed in 1978 in order to pre-sent a midsummer concert at Washington State University, and its name was designed to capture “the warmth and brightness of the summer solstice.” A strong sense of that initial sunny radiance pervades this recording, but just as the last few weeks of June are sometimes overcast, rainy, and given to thunderstorms, the lightness is balanced here in both selection and sound by a deep and abiding melancholy.
Wind quintets, first coming on the scene at the end of the 18th century, are the reedy answer to string quartets in chamber music. This recording gives each voice—flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn—a chance to display its own properties and abilities while working together within a small ensemble.
But while this particular CD might be a good introduction to wind quintets for the uninitiated, that’s not to say it’s by any means unchallenging. The recording opens and closes with two minor composers, Charles Lefebvre and Ludwig Thuille. Sandwiched in between are the considerably more well-known Debussy and Beethoven, both of whom never wrote for the standard wind quintet. The members of Solstice—Susan Hess, Roger Logan, Gary Plowman, James Schoepflin, and Ann Marie Yasinitsky—are all on the WSU music faculty and are accomplished musicians in their own right. Their considerable skill and scholarship is evident throughout, but especially so in the closing selection, Thuille’s lovely and unforgettable Sextet in B Flat, featuring guest pianist Gerald Berthiaume, also a WSU faculty member. By turns both pensive and joyous, the Sextet, as well as the entire CD, is worth many repeated listenings.
Sheri Boggs is Arts and Culture Editor of The Pacific Northwest Inlander.
For more information, contact WSU School of Music and Theatre Arts, 509-335-3898.