French Winds quintet enthralls audiences

Fans of classical and baroque music were in for a real treat at the Alliance Francaise on Wednesday evening with the Concert Impromptu from Paris, a wind instruments quintet, delighting the audiences with their mastery over their instruments.

Most of the numbers they played dated back to the baroque era. Other pieces they played interestingly displayed Asian and African influences.

The quintet comprised a horn, an oboe, a clarinet, a transverse flute and a bassoon.

All the artistes displayed strong mastery over their instruments -- and strong control over their lungs. There was perfect coordination among all the instruments -- and the instrumentalists. They entertained the audience for well over an hour.

Even though the selections they presented were not all that well-known, one of these was simply splendid. This was a vivacious, lively toe-tapping waltz, Un Bal, from the Symphony Fantastique by Berlioz. Rendition of this piece was simply out of this world.

One could lay a wager that many among the audience must be having an urge to start waltzing to the piece, so profound and powerful was the rendition.

The quintet was led by Guillaune Derlin on the horn. He really handled the instrument most adroitly. This, of course, is not to suggest that the other members of the quintet were any less versatile. They all put up a really astute performance.

It was after a long time that the city had a programme of real Western music, refreshingly different from all those nerve-raking experiments in fusion music or the ear-shattering pops with the artistes displaying their oddities in the form of amusing attires.

One could only hope that such programmes would not be so few and far between. They certainly add tremendously to the city’s cultural and entertainment landscape.