The Week's Music...

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 953, 15 November 1957, Page 24

The Week's Music...

by

SEBASTIAN

E have all read with dismay of Dennis Brain’s untimely death at the peak of his concert career; and it is only a partial consolation that much of his playing has survived on recordings. He was a phenomenon, a virtuoso on an instrument which most players are content to blow with frequent burps and snuffles, but which in his hands became Youth’s Magic Horn itself. Another partial consolation was the recording of his last concert at the Edinburgh Festival (YC link) which was broadcast recently. Here, both as "soloist and with the wind quintet named for him, he was at the top of his form, light and fantastic in dexterity, full and soulful in softer solos. ‘ The music was good, too, with familiar and less-known works rubbing shoulders like. old friends. Beethoven’s E Flat Quintet, for instance, was suave and cleanly polished, with the piano and wind contrast neatly played off. More unusual in idiom was the Dialogue No. 4 for wind quintet by the contemporary Italian Malipiero, This brilliant onemovement work, modernistic but not untuneful, presents its musical argument in general between high and low registers; and two contrasting rhythms; the parties often interrupt or speak at the same time, and sometimes agree on the

a matter under discussion. The moods change freely, and in the long run no decision is reached-as is the way with sO many conversations, The playing, both from the solo and ensemble point of view, was admirable, each cue, each phrasing and each’ sonority sounding with a punctual planned impact’ that made convincing even the most polyrhythmic and loosely-knit passages, The other large work in this proframme was Racine Fricker’s Wind Quintet, which has something of a symphonic style squeezed into chamber size. The movements, cast in a compressed form, are each based on different rhythmic themes, which a wind group can bring off so effectively; and I found it interesting, if not immediately attractive. Besides these, Dennis Brain played a horn solo, a Villanelle by Paul Dukas, which was a happy piece, pretty without triviality, full of life and not a little love. This called forth some of the ‘horn’s tenderest accents, especially in the lovely muted section, where the atmosphere was of pure poetry. In fact, all his playing was poetic; I don’t think he ever played hackneyed music, because as soon as he played it, it became something new and more worthwhile. What better tribute can we offer a musician?