The Cape Town Concert Series Presents: CPO Wind Quartet: A Breath of Air. At the Baxter Concert Hall, on Saturday 15 August 2026, 11 am. Music for Woodwind, players by Françaix, Rutter, Auric, Brandon, Rubtsov & Hofmeyr. Review: ALBERT COMBRINK.
A concert presenting only woodwind works is quite a rarity. The genre, as we know it, is relatively young; much of the music for it will be either arrangements of older music, or more modern compositions. It is of the latter group that the players selected some canonic works well-known to followers of the genre, interspersed with some fresh names.
The woodwinds fall into two main categories: 1) flute, where sound is made by blowing directly into an instrument, or over a hole of sorts, a bit as one would make a sound blowing over a bottle, and 2) reeds, where air is blown between either 2 reeds (oboe and bassoon) vibrating against each other, or 1 reed vibrating against a fixed surface (clarinet). Flutes are probably the oldest human instruments, with existing examples such as the Slovenian “Divje Babe Flute” (made from a 60 000 year old cave bear femur) and the Geißenklösterle Flutes (made from bird- and mammoth bones 43 000 years ago). Playable examples even exist in China, with Crane Bone Jiahu Flutes dating back 7000 years. Adding handmade reeds to these required technology, skills and tools and at about 2700 BCE the Egyptian Memet and Double Clarinet emerged along with its cousin, the Aulos, across the Mediterranean Sea in Greece.
Evolving from Harmoniemusik court wind bands
It took until the late 18th century for woodwind groups to develop as a formal activity, evolving from the Harmoniemusik court wind bands and marching military in Vienna around 1782, taking their lead from the military bands of the simultaneously terrifying and artistically inspiring Ottoman Empire. Since the instruments we know today were still evolving, it took a while before Anton Reicha and Franz Danzi settled on the particular combination we know today – a constitution of sounds we know from the symphonic orchestra. We have heard them depict it all: the clarinet’s cats and cuckoos, the flute’s fauns and forest birds, the oboe’s swans, ducks and shepherds, and the bassoon’s grumpy grandfathers and bewitched broomsticks.
This is their natural habitat: colours on a palette, to be mixed and applied with the eye and ear of a master. And we have heard these very players perform these works with the orchestra many times: all four players are principal members of the CPO, and all are excellent musicians in their own right
One might think that an entire programme devoted to what appears to be a limited tone-palette (without the softening of strings or the heft of added piano or brass) would prove taxing, but the CPO Wind Quartet selected a range of pieces from solo flute, to duet (bassoon and oboe), a trio just for the reeds, and book-ending the concert with two substantial quartet items.
A pleasure to hear live
Gabriele von Dürckheim performed Orithyia and the North Wind Op.155, a work for solo-flute by South African Hendrik Hofmeyr (b. 1957). This work was inspired by the ancient Greek myth of the princess Orithyia who, while dancing on the banks of the river Ilissus, was carried off in a cloud by the enamoured North Wind, Boreas. Von Dürckheim gave a short demonstration beforehand of some of the experimental “extended” playing techniques used in the work: including double notes, pizzicato, tongue-rams, harmonic explosions, flutter-tongue, key-slaps, and simultaneous singing and playing. Ribbons of notes cascaded from the flute with apparent ease, outlining melodic ideas and maintaining shape in a work that can appear episodic. Not many players will tackle a work of this difficulty, so it was a pleasure to hear live.
Going to the Sun: Snapshots from Glacier National Park, the duo for oboe and bassoon by Jenni Brandon (b. 1977) was a pleasant experience, exploring the tongued or sung options open to two similar instruments, one more prone to the bass and the other more comfortable flying high. Inspired by eight postcards from the Glacier National Park, the work is meant to depict various landmarks, sunrises and sunsets, and while I tried to follow the sections of the work, I had to give up trying to follow the structure – after a while I did not know what was ‘glacier’ and what was ‘glacier overlook’. Be it the composer or the performers, ultimately I am not sure there was enough meat to fill the full 12-minute pie.
II. Blues & III. Rag, a clarinet and flute duo by John Rutter (b. 1945) opened with the heart-stoppingly quiet and sustained playing that Féroll-Jon Davids brings to those great orchestral solos, and closed with a light and light-hearted rag. Short and sweet, but perhaps could have worked later in the programme.
The Reed Trio in D Major, for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon by Georges Auric (1899-1983) was another timbrel choice – deliberately excluding the sound of any non-reed instrument – and a lightweight but entertaining choice from a composer whose orchestral music and film scores deserve more airtime. The Romance: Très modéré was emotionally touching and will stay in the memory.
Jean Françaix (1912-1997) provided the opening, for full quartet. A composer known for his sarcasm, wit, and quirky humour, I found the performance could have explored those very elements further. Today we generalise the quirkiness and humour of his style, and that of his gang Les Six, a group of young composers, who, through mainly Eric Satie’s artistic and social connections, were exposed to the Parisian avant-garde ‘glitterati’, spending their time in the company of up-and-coming pianists, singers, painters and writers. Someone who took a special interest in the group, was the aesthete-socialite Jean Cocteau – outspoken about his reaction against what he termed the “overripe German Romanticism” and the “vagueness of the Impressionist style such as Debussy.” This music was designed to make society clutch at its pearls, just a bit, and tut-tut, while pretending not to be tapping its feet. Let’s see what this group does with Les Six next time.
Four Bagatelles for Wind Quartet
The programme ended with the Four Bagatelles for Wind Quartet by Andrey Rubtsov (b. 1982) probably the youngest work on the programme, and to my ears, the work that managed to mine the most layers of colour from the palette at hand. Quotations and near-quotations of popular- and classical culture alike, add a layer of engagement which the finale of the programme needed, and the artists wisely swapped the number of the Bagatelles around to make for a more satisfying conclusion to the programme. The Rubtsov undoubtably was the winner of the morning, providing a balance between light-hearted writing, designed to entertain, and some lovely textures that reminded one more of the orchestral function of these instruments than anything else on the programme.
The next Cape Town Concert Series concert: CT Baroque Festival The Road to the Symphony with Erik Bosgraaf – see here.
WS
