October 4, 2015 Despite the unusually elaborate arrangement of microphones, the Olmos Ensemble’s concert of Sept. 30 was being recorded for only archival purposes. Too bad. The delicious program, demanding and revealing exceptional virtuosity, deserved wider exposure.  The centerpiece of the concert, in First Unitarian Universalist Church, was Anton Reicha’s Quintet in F Minor, from the third of his four six-packs of wind quintets (composed between 1810 and 1820) that established the genre. Flanking it were two American works, both bristling with wit and energy, from the 20th century — Ingolf Dahl’s Allegro and Arioso for Five Wind Instruments (1943) and John Harbison’s Quintet for Winds (1979).  Dahl, born in Hamburg in 1912 to a Swedish mother and a German Jewish father, moved to Switzerland when it became evident that the Nazis would take power in his native land. In 1939 he moved to the United States, where he found much work in the entertainment industry while continuing to compose serious music in a complex neoclassical vein. He died in 1970.  Most of the weight of his Allegro and Arioso falls on the former, which opens with Stravinsky-like cackling. Sinuous melody takes surprising turns, the counterpoint is dense, and the rhythms are intricate. It sometimes seems that the piece is made from mismatched parts, yet they somehow manage to fit together. The music is tough to play and challenging for a listener to take in, but attention yields pleasures.  Harbison’s Quintet is not very distant from Dahl’s in style. The first of its five movements is dark and declamatory, and often played in unison. The second is a fairly easy-going intermezzo. A sort of harlequinade breaks out in the middle of the otherwise moonlit Romanza. The Scherzo is jet-propelled. After a slow introduction, the finale  is like a team of jugglers marching in quick-step on rubber legs. It’s a perfectly delightful piece that alway keeps you guessing.  Reicha, on the evidence of his wind quintets, was a first-class brain, a master of extended form — as was his most illustrious student, Hector Berlioz.  His F Minor Quintet is notable for evident allusions to Slavic folk styles, for the eventfulness of the opening movement (built on six different themes), and for putting the players through considerable counting difficulties.   Apart from some slight tuning discrepancies in the Harbison, the performances were crisp, polished and spirited all around — in a program that was probably the most difficult ever packaged by the Olmos Ensemble. Everyone made the honor roll: Martha Long (flute), Paul Lueders (oboe), Ilya Shterenberg (clarinet), Jeff Garza (horn) and Sharon Kuster (bassoon).  But, to return to those microphones: Great performances such as this one should not vanish in the æther the moment they’re over. There’s really no excuse for that in the 21st century. San Antonio needs a pot of money and a system to produce streaming video of local classical concerts. At least a few concerts each season by the San Antonio Symphony and by our top-drawer chamber groups ought to be made available online, on-demand. Such a program would provide a great benefit for students, for the musicians (who would have to be given additional compensation for streaming their performances), and for the international reputation of the city. Great concerts should not be regarded as fleeting entertainments. They are part of our cultural patrimony and should be treated as such.  Mike Greenberg   

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Anton Reicha

A great concert shouldn’t be over when it’s over

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Olmos Ensemble