Windows on Europe Concert by Kammerwerke Double Wind Quintet

Kammerwerke Double Wind Quintet under the direction of Alan Pearlmutter will present “Windows on Europe,” a concert of works by well-known European composers, on 27 April 2018 at 7:30 pm at First Parish in Bedford, 75 The Great Road, Bedford, MA.  The program will include Parthia in D (1784) by Czech composer Joseph Reicha, Suite Persane (1900) by André Caplet (French), Norse Legend (1938) by Frank Bridge (British), and Czech Suite, Op. 39 (1879) by Czech master Antonin Dvořák.

Composed in the familiar style of Mozart, Haydn and early Beethoven, Reicha’s music has charm, wit, simplicity and brevity.  Caplet’s three-movement work of the early 20^th century calls attention to the unusual scales of Persian music.  Norse Legend by Frank Bridge is both romantic and impressionistic and is reminiscent of the gentle, swaying melodies of Ralph Vaughan Williams.  Dvořák’s Czech Suite is one of the composer’s great symphonic chamber orchestra works incorporating Czech folk music and folk dance.  Lively, melodious and filled with colorful energy, this arrangement for dectet by Graham Sheen does considerable justice to the original score.