The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Waterloo PM 'ijitglllllllllill) iitgslllt JUNE " 2000 an Evmfs Hm friiiiiiEli,.l, WITHIN rm W31 Elm-4m. Mimtrttrmrmltll WHEN?!“ BALL 747-8 ”MM/tn aTtstiu%sGurss- Wham " (Imam I!itt"triitrit" 1rdllrtui. Minimum " " HEM-Wynne mm: tlit "In” Mit my 124 m A brilliant musical finale for WindFest Over that brief and intense time they mastered several dozen tine ensemble works. generously sharing them with area audiences. And each week one couldn't help wondering where do you go from excellence? or three weeks, 16 FWindFesl insuumen- mists made Waterloo their temporary home. But all good things must come to an end and WindFest 2000 was no exception. On Saturday. the K-W Chamber Music Society hosted a marathon grand finale to celebrate the joys of that now-familiar species called "Harmonie Musik.". For about 50 listeners, it was something of a history lesson as well. In works ranging from the late 18th century through the early 20th, performers demon- strated how radically both musical styles and instru- mental techniques had changed. The opening Serenade for IWinds (Op.43, 1888) by the Danish church organist Emil Hartmann included not only flute, oboe, clap BY PAULINE Final For The Chronicle inets, horns, and bassoons. but an unusual lone cello as well. Hartmann may not be a household name, but he knew how to build a solidly balanced ensemble and Saturday's players did him proud. couldn't help wondering; where do you go from excellence? The life of another obscure European, Fritz Volbach (1861-1940), exactly bridged two centuries and his Quintet for Piano and Winds (featuring honourary WindFest member Sydney Bulman-Fleming on key- board) may well have been a K-W premiere, according to instructors Nina Brickman and James Mason. With melodic sugges- tions of Richard Strauss, Wagner, Brahms and Schumannwoven into three complex overlapping move- ments, Volbach threw in enough interpretive and technical challenges to keep the oboe. clarinet, horn and bassoon busy holding things together. But it was well ...each week one worth a few laboured moments to travel the full length and breadth of a bril- liantly crafted score with No more works show- cased multiples of the same instruments - a perky trio of two oboes and English horn in Beethoven's Variations on "La ci darem la mano" (from Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni) and a resonant ensemble that made Paul Hindemith's (1895-1963) Quartet for Horns a sheer delight to hear. By far the most famous selection on Saturday's musical menu was Mozart's late, great Quintet in E-flat for Piano and Winds (K452), again drawing on the peren- nially skillful Bulman- Fleming who meshed with oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon as if he'd played with them for years, not a mere few days. Mozart himself said this was one of the best wind works he'd ever written and these WindFest players once again proved him right. Pauline Finch is a K-W area writer and amateur musician.