Calefax Reed Quintet

Saturday, January 24, 2015 | 8:00 pm

Baldwin Auditorium

The Calefax Reed Quintet, a unique reed ensemble from Amsterdam, has distinguished itself with its imaginative transcriptions that reach back to the Middle Ages, its “spectacular sound that draws in the audience” (El País), and its lively unseated performances.

Spanning 400 years, the program begins with a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Prelude & Fugue in E-flat Major from The Well Tempered Clavier. The ensemble reaches back to the 15th century for the lamentations of Johannes Ockeghem’s motet chanson Mort tu as navré, and then offers the 16th century consort music of Christopher Tye, which once reverberated in the courts of Elizabethan England. Moving forward to the 19th and 20th centuries, the shimmering Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue of César Franck is followed by three of Conlon Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano, incorporating elements of blues, boogie-woogie, and the composer’s own abstract style, and initially deemed too fast and too rhythmically complex for live performance. The evening concludes with selections from Shostakovich’s Preludes & Fugues, the Russian composer’s tribute to J.S. Bach.

Program