The power of contrasts

The wind quintet has often been treated as a lesser form – something salon-like, didactic, sometimes even “school-like.” But in the 20th century, that began to change. Composers started to see more in this ensemble than just five instruments – they saw five voices, five characters, five ways of thinking. This program brings together four distinct perspectives on what modern chamber music can be.

Emil František Burian (1904-1959), a member of the Czech leftist avant-garde, composed his Wind Quintet in 1930. At the time, he was not only a composer but also a poet, theater director, and publicist. The quintet reflects his functional aesthetic – it is precise, rhythmic, based on short motifs and sharp contrasts.

Václav Trojan (1907-1983) was best known as a composer of film and radio music, including for Zděnek Miler’s animations. His Quintet in E-flat major Op. 8, written in the 1940s, was intended for concert performance – it’s a concise, precisely constructed work with a clear formal logic and a readable distribution of roles among the instruments.

Paul Hӧffer (1899-1949), a German composer and theorist, in his Quintet for wind instruments, draws on a motif from one of Beethoven’s string quartets and develops it in variation form. It’s an example of German Neoclassicism from the 1930s, characterized by transparent textures, controlled harmony, and balance.

Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998), a Polish modernist and émigré, completed his Wind Quintet in 1934, before leaving the country. The piece was performed several times on Polish Radio. It has a compact four-movement structure, rich texture, and sharply contrasting tempos – it’s one of his first mature chamber works, showing the influence of Karol Szymanowski and the musical environment of interwar Warsaw.

Each of the works presented uses the same performing forces, but on entirely different terms. These are four separate musical worlds built from the same five instruments. It’s worth hearing how differently the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn can speak – and how much depends on who gives them voice.

Excerpt from the FeelHarmony Quintet's 2023 concert at the Szczecin Philharmonic: