Philadelphia Woodwind Quartet

A concert by the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet yesterday afternoon inaugurated the Pierian Sodality's 1953-54 Sunday Concert Series. The Quintet is composed of members of the Philadelphia Orchestra; four of them are the solo players in their respective sections. This ensemble represents a tradition which is one of the most significant and unique features of the contemporary musical scene. Perhaps the central innovation of the modern virtuoso orchestra is the phenomenally increased importance of the woodwinds. Certain mechanical improvements in some of the woodwinds during the past century have helped to bring about this movement; more important, the new spectrum of orchestral color introduced by such 19th century figures as Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz and developed and refined by virtually every 20th century composer has made greater demands upon woodwind players than upon other instrumentalists. There are few trumpet players today who can play Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, and the Paganini violin concerti dating from the early 19th century--not to mention the violin part in the Brandenburg 4th--still make formidable demands upon today's soloists. But (excepting Mozart) it is to this century that woodwind players must turn for the greatest display of their virtuosity, to Stravinsky and to Ravel.

The beginnings of the current tradition of woodwind playing rest with certain great French instrumentalists who came to America early in this century. Recent years have witnessed the retirement of many of these musicians but their places have been taken by members of a new, "American" school of woodwind playing.

Stokowski played a great part in molding the new style during his 25 year reign of the Philadelphia Orchestra and it is the inheritors of this style whom we heard yesterday in Sanders Theatre. Thus the remarkable stylistic features of the group's performance--the infinite modulations in dynamics, in the vibrato, and in the tonal intensity itself; the subtle and varied means of tongueing (comparable to bowing on a string instrument) and the avoidance of a "pecking" staccato; the richness and homogeneity of the blended tone not only of all five instruments but also of the many other combinations possible all these brought to mind the tradition, now taken for granted, which forms one of the bases of the virtuoso symphony orchestra in this country.

The woodwind quintet form, however, no matter how perfectly achieved by these men from Philadelphia, can never even approach the chamber music ideal of the string quartet. For one thing, these five woodwind instruments which have somehow found a place in the modern orchestra after centuries of experimentation and sifting have not that tonal and technical uniformity which is the raison d'etre of the string quartet. Of course it may be answered that a woodwind quintet can aim at quite a different and equally valid ideal. Unfortunately, composers have not yet shown what this might be. The two classical works on the program (by Beethoven and Haydn) were both transcriptions, and of the contemporary quintets played, only the Hindemith has serious merit, though three short pieces by Ibert offer facile pleasure by their eclectic and clever ideas. The fact that a work is a transcription need not condemn it, however; and the two performed by the Quintet proved to be first Yale. The opening Haydn Divertimento in B flat was especially pleasing. Each of its four short movements is a gem, developing is a succinct and translucent manner a very few musical ideas. It is in this work that Haydn uses the Chorale St. Antoni which was to become the theme of Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn.

Abandoning the quintet medium bristly, three of the musicians performed Walter Piston's Trio for flute, clarinet, and has soon. This is an excellent work and shows that a composer who understands woodwinds as well as Professor Piston can attain a greater subtlety and variety of effects from three instruments than, for example, Persichetti could from five in the Pastoral which was performed immediately before the Piston work. One of the most interesting features of the Trio is its experimentation with the colors which can be attained by fast and soft figurations in the flute and clarinet with the bassoon playing a melodic motif above them. Professor Piston was on hand to share the generous applause with the three instrumentalists.