Das Reicha'sche Quintett - Franz Danzi: Complete Wind Quintets (2003)

One or more of these 1995 thru 1997 recordings have been, and/or still are, available separately. NCA has conveniently and, it must be said, quite elegantly repackaged them in a handsomely appointed foldout set. The first disc in this set, the op. 56 quintets, was reviewed as far back as 10 years ago by John Bauman in 23:6 in all of three brief paragraphs. Franz Danzi, (1763-1826) an almost exact contemporary of Beethoven, perhaps deserves a bit more than that, but frankly, not a lot more. He got it in 31:3 from Steven E. Ritter who reviewed a three-CD BIS set of Danzi's complete wind quintets performed on modern instruments by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet that were recorded half-a-dozen years earlier than these NCA releases. Complete is italicized to call attention to the discrepancy in the number of works included in both of these sets and the significantly more generous timing of the BIS entry, which includes the three wind quintets with piano. The current NCA set is limited to just the nine winds-only quintets that Danzi had published in groups of three under three opus numbers.

No examination of Danzi's wind quintets can avoid mention of Anton Reicha (1770-1836), for even though Reicha was the slightly younger of the two composers, it was he who did for the wind quintet--a medium mainly associated at the time with the Harmonie, or wind bands--what Haydn did for the string quartet and the symphony. Danzi, by all reckonings a much lesser talent than Reicha, played followed the leader when it came to the writing of wind quintets.

The Reicha'sche Quintet, founded in 1992, is comprised of a group of musicians who alternate freely between playing in both modern and period instruments ensembles. In the latter, they have performed with Berlin's Akademie für Alte Musik, Anima Eterna, Cappella Coloniensis, and Vienna's Concentus Musicus. An odd sentence in the booklet note maintains that playing these works is "an almost impossible undertaking, with this extremely heterogeneous line-up, on modern instruments." I think Ritter would beg to differ. He called the performances on BIS "one of the finest things the estimable Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet has done," and concluded "that without question [they] have set a very high bar for future endeavors." There seems to be a self-serving mindset among many period-instrument practitioners that theirs is the only legitimate approach. It isn't.

That said, I have no criticism of the Reicha'sche Quintet's playing on these discs. Hans-Peter Westermann's oboe, a 1996 replica of a Vincenzo Panormo oboe from the end of the 18th century, is a particularly lovely sounding instrument, sweet-toned and smoothly regulated over its full range. It's really unfair, though, to single out the oboe; for, in fact, all of these instruments but one are well mannered and possess very pleasing tonal characteristics. The sole exception is the replica of a Heinrich Grenser bassoon, circa 1800. The sound it produces is not unpleasant; it just sounds a bit thin and lacking in body compared to the other instruments, the result being a slightly undernourished bass.

The criticism I've held in reserve is not for any of the fine musicians of the Reicha'sche Quintet, for their instruments, or for the recordings, which have an aliveness and presence to them that's quite appealing. My disappointment is with Danzi. Of course, it's not incumbent on anyone to sit down and listen to these three discs straight through, but even an abbreviated sampling should be enough to convince you that Danzi's musical endowments were limited. To my ear, these quintets come across as exercises in the exploration of wind band sonorities with little in the way of melodic or harmonic interest. Danzi may have been gifted with a technical facility for combining wind instruments, but based on the evidence of these quintets it would seem that a talent for writing music of any real consequence was not his; which I guess is a bit like saying the presentation of the meal is praiseworthy, but the food itself is subpar. Ah well, at least there's consolation in knowing the set is expensive, $49.98 at amazon.com.

Recommended then for fine performances and recording, but probably to an audience with deep pockets and a special interest in this genre. -- Fanfare, Jerry Dubins, Jan-Feb 2010