The Limpinwood Ensemble – a review
Marie Cameron shares her delight at hearing and connecting with a Brisbane-based wind ensemble.
The Limpinwood Ensemble are a group of talented musicians, all with impressive qualifications, teaching and orchestral experience, both in Australia and overseas. They made a triumphant return to the stage for 2020 at the Burke and Wills hotel on 24 September, in a concert sponsored by ADFAS (Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society).
The first work was a Wind Quintet by Franz Danzi (1763-1826), a composer whose melodic and delightful style was on display in this charming piece. It was followed by a Wind Quintet by Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). Nielsen, a Danish composer, wrote this work for the Copenhagen Wind Quintet whose members were his good friends, and it reflects the quirks of their personalities and interrelationships. One moment they are all talking or arguing; the next moment, they may be quite alone. The composer describes one of the variations in this piece, written for clarinet and bassoon, as being like a married couple who are arguing, with the bassoon (the husband) being silenced in the end!
After a brief jazzy piece, the final work was a Dance Suite by contemporary British composer Norman Hallam, with four toe-tapping movements: Waltz, Bossa Nova, Quickstep and Charleston.
The playing throughout was crisp and beautifully phrased, and very expressive, and the balance and blend of the instruments was masterful. The musicians, Patrick Nolan (flute), Peter Luff (horn), Rianne Wilschut (clarinet), Eve Newsome (oboe) and Katharine Willison (bassoon), enhanced our concert experience by talking about and demonstrating their instruments, and by telling us more about the music they were playing.
The socially-distanced audience of ADFAS members and guests really enjoyed this wonderful concert, and gave the ensemble a well-deserved rousing ovation at the end.
Disclaimer: views represented in SOFiA articles are entirely the view of the respective authors and in no way represent an official SOFiA position.
Photo by Marius Masalar on Unsplash
