Daniele Bourget, Normand Forget, Martin Charpentier, Mathieu Lussier and Louis-Philippe Marsolais found wind-quintet arrangements of two iconic works: Modeste Mussorgski’s Pictures at an Exhibition and, in time for its big centennial earlier this year, Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
Let’s be clear: These five wind players are masters, capable of subtle technical tricks and sound modulation that are awe-inspiring. But not even their very best efforts can save these two muscular suites from being somehow diminished by these arrangements.
Yes, Rite of Spring is largely wind-driven, starting with the seductive call of the bassoon right at the start, but the driving rhythms that this ballet music feeds on are physically impossible to sustain with a vibrating column of air.
That’s why the piano reductions work so well: that big, black beast is really a percussion instrument, fulfilling the first, most basic need in this music.
Despite his best efforts, which include cutting a goodly chunk of particularly wind-unfriendly music from the Rite, Michael Byerly’s arrangement comes across as thin and flat. Too bad.
Mussorgsky wrote Pictures for the piano. Maurice Ravel came along in the early 1920s to orchestrate it in all sorts of pretty colours. Stéphane Mooser’s wind arrangement aims to bridge the two, and does pretty well, using the wide range of timbres and textures from the quintet to really nice effect.
Even so, there is a stripped-down quality to the sound — kind of like an autumn tree that has lost most, but not all, of its colourful leaves.
You can find out more about this album here.
John Terauds