Concerts
The Haffner Wind Ensemble:
Nicholas Daniel oboe
Joy Farrall clarinet
Janne Thomsen flute
Sarah Burnett bassoon
Stephen Bell horn
Monday 16th November 2009 at 7.30pm
Haffner Wind Ensemble
Mozart Andante K. 616
Hindemith Kleine Kammermusik Op. 24 No. 2
Ibert Trois Pièces Brèves
Shchedrin Three Shepherds
James MacMillan "Untold" for wind quintet
Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin
‘The Haffner Wind Ensemble is very impressive indeed, both individually as personalities and as a team matching timbres expertly. Their playing is full of spontaneity and conveyed enjoyment …’ Gramophone
‘… everything they did was highly polished yet at the same time sounded almost unnervingly spontaneous.’ The Times
Soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral principals in their own right, the members of the Haffner Ensemble form one of the best and most versatile groups of its type. As audiences have come to expect, the ensemble’s concert features a highly imaginative programme that juxtaposes the classical, the modern and the contemporary on an irresistible smorgasbord.
First comes a Mozart curiosity, his charming Andante K. 616. Originally written for a small clockwork organ, it is an accompaniment for the dance of a tiny fairy princess. In his Kleine Kammermusik, Hindemith revealed sardonic humour as he sought to dust away the cobwebs of the musical past. Gallic charm comes in the form of Ibert’s witty Trois Pièces Brèves before the Haffner presents two more recent works – one by the brilliant Soviet composer Rodion Shchedrin, and another by one of Britain’s most outstanding musical voices, James MacMillan. Finally Ravel’s eloquent Le Tombeau de Couperin commemorates six friends and comrades who had fallen on the Western Front while also paying homage to his Baroque predecessor.