The Estria Quintet was founded in the Eastern Townships of Quebec – known in French as l’Estrie – 11 years ago. In addition to the normal repertory, they are passionate about music of our time and have commissioned over 20 Canadian works for woodwind quintet. In the last half century Canadian works for woodwinds have begun to exhibit their own unique personality.
The work providing the overall title for this disc was written in 1946 and was one of the first Canadian woodwind quintets. It leans on French impressionism and the movements have titles such as Skiff, Gulls and Shell Works. Composer Gayfer spent a large part of his musical career in the Canadian armed forces. His little suite reminded me of Alec Wilder’s suites for woodwind quintet – light, witty and often a bit jazzy – though the Interlude movement sounds more like Milhaud. The Buczynski Suite is a lovely romantic style work with rich melodies. The other two composers venture into more contemporary sonorities, though never losing a basically tonal design with some warm melodic invention.
The woodwind quintet is one of my personal favorite chamber ensembles, in fact I prefer it to string quartets. Its combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn just seem to encompass the perfect range and timbres for works especially composed for the ensemble. The Estria players are superb virtuosi and they received excellent sonic preservation from the Atma engineers. Woodwind lovers will definitely want to have this CD, eh?
– John Sunier
