Fierce Winds

Chamber Music is alive and well in Mill Valley — even on Super Bowl Sunday. Even during the Super Bowl. Improbable as this may seem, a near-capacity audience eschewed the day’s customary revelries in favor of a highly polished and at times wildly exhilarating performance by the superb Zephyros Winds.

Comprised of graduates of Eastman, Curtis, Juilliard, and Yale, Zephyros was formed in 1995. It was the first wind quintet to win the Grand Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition’s 22-year history. All five players are based in Manhattan, where they enjoy active careers as performers. Mill Valley Chamber Music Society is fortunate to have the Mount Tamalpais Methodist Church as its concert venue. Despite poor sight lines, its acoustics are superb and particularly well-suited to the intimacy and nuances of chamber music. The Zephyros players took full advantage of the room’s warmth and resonance to deliver some truly ethereal moments without losing any of their remarkable rhythmic vitality and clarity.

Endre Who?

The agreeable acoustics enhanced two decidedly intriguing pieces by Hungarian composers: the obscure Endre Szervanszky and the esoteric György Ligeti. James Roe, the oboist and affable announcer for the program, couldn’t resist poking fun at the former’s level of obscurity. While neither piece is characterized by memorable melodies, both nonetheless reveal abundant craft and a mastery of wind idioms. Audience members clearly enjoyed their fierce dissonances, huge dynamic contrasts, and pulsating rhythms. Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles were extracted from 11 short pieces he composed for solo piano. I am quite certain he found a far more effective realization of his score when he reworked it for winds. For instance, the Bartók-inspired Adagio was eerily effective. All five players delivered strong, committed performances in this set. Flutist Jennifer Grim dazzled in the Szervanszky with her energetic mastery of the piece’s many long and jagged phrases, and Patrick Pridemore was more than equal to its screamingly difficult horn part. Roe, clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt, and bassoonist Douglas Quint were particularly impressive in their fluidity and handling of the understated passages in the Ligeti. The concert began with Darius Milhaud’s La Cheminée du roi René, an oft-performed work on many wind quintet programs. Full of subtlety and a bit subdued, it’s not a typical opener. However, the piece has become a staple because of Milhaud’s full command of the tonal possibilities available in this combination of instruments. Is there a more inherently colorful ensemble than the wind quintet? The players infused this reading with unified phrasing, feathery releases, meticulous intonation, and mellifluous execution of the meandering lines. They played with the depth of sound and the assured, communicative élan that you expect from a seasoned chamber ensemble.

He-Said, She-Said

The program’s one great piece was Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, skillfully arranged by Mason Jones, former principal horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The beloved orchestral setting of this piece (originally written for solo piano) is driven by the woodwinds, so little of its splashy verve and rich harmonies are lost in this adaptation. In the Prelude, there was some rhythmic instability with the melodic lines that didn’t quite lock in as they were passed from player to player, and it took several phrases for the Menuet to settle into an agreeable tempo after a brisker than usual opening. Overall, the playing was persuasive, cohesive, and overflowing with mature artistry. This is a special ensemble. James Roe and Jennifer Grim were featured in a clever pairing of solo pieces. Benjamin Britten’s Pan (for solo oboe) and Debussy’s Syrinx for Solo Flute (for solo flute) offered he-said, she-said versions of the Greek mythological characters. It’s a rare treat for chamber music audiences to hear solo wind players, particularly of this caliber. Grim earned high marks for her extraordinary, spellbinding performance of a piece that has received more than its fair share of perfunctory efforts by lesser flutists.