by Peter Feher
What do you call a concerto for six soloists? There’s no punchline here — just a delightful question posed by the first faculty concert of this year’s Kent Blossom Music Festival.
On Wednesday, June 25, in Ludwig Recital Hall, pianist Jon Kimura Parker and the five members of WindSync came together in a dynamic performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue that somewhat confounded categories.
“Piano sextet” is the usual name for this combination of instruments, and Gershwin’s composition could easily be subtitled “a concerto in one movement.” Yet neither designation would do justice to the spirit of this collaboration, in which every musician shone.
Of course, clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson kicked things off with a superbly exaggerated glissando. Where the original score would next hand the melody to a muted trumpet, oboist Noah Kay instead delivered the tune in an uncanny imitation of that timbre.
But this arrangement of Rhapsody, made in 2017 by Austrian clarinetist Reinhard Gutschy, doesn’t simply update the accompaniment. Gutschy gives the wind players some of the pianist’s part, and vice versa. It’s several steps beyond the reorchestration that’s otherwise standard for this piece, which premiered in 1924 in a jazz-band version but is most often performed today with full symphonic backing.
At times on Wednesday, you could hear how only an orchestra can truly stand up to the volume of a piano at full stick. As strong as each member of WindSync is individually, the ensemble’s robust collective sound didn’t quite match the power of Parker coming out of his cadenzas during a few of the climaxes.
These were minor moments, though, in an interpretation that largely prioritized the score’s many colorful scenes — a smart way for WindSync to get the most out of the work.
The ensemble had already demonstrated its ingenuity earlier in the evening, opening the Gershwin-centric second half with an original arrangement of “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. Bassoonist Kara LaMoure and hornist Anni Hochhalter grounded the song’s harmonies, while Johnson, Kay, and flutist Garrett Hudson took turns crooning the vocal line.
For an encore, the group transformed another popular tune, “El Cascabel,” a mariachi standard that, midway through, saw several members put down their instruments and start up a staggered clapping rhythm.
We were a world away from the program’s first half, which was devoted to Mozart and comprised almost an hour of music. Despite his prolific output, the composer never penned a wind quintet. He did, however, write a piece for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano: his Quintet in E-flat, K. 452, which brought Parker out before intermission.
Altogether, that was perhaps a bit too much Mozart following WindSync’s terrific performance of the composer’s Serenade in c, K. 388, as arranged by Israeli bassoonist Mordechai Rechtman. The final movement of that work, a theme and variations, allowed each player to step into the spotlight. Rarely has a quintet sounded so much like a mini concerto.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com July 10, 2025
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