Skipton Music’s 2025-26 season continued with a concert by the wind quintet Lumas Winds, an ensemble based on friendships made in the National Youth Orchestra.
Their programme was clearly designed to showcase the variety of music written or arranged for this combination (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon) and ranging from a quintet by Danzi – the “father” of the genre – via the French composers Ibert and Milhaud to the jazz-inflected pieces by the Americans Gunther Schuller and Lalo Schifrin. In such a wide-ranging programme there was much to enjoy – I was particularly taken by the tough harmonies and insistent rhythms of the Schuller suite, and it is always a joy to hear Milhaud in his typically effervescent mood. To add variety there was also a piece for unaccompanied flute, a strangely evocative and moving suite by the contemporary composer Corey de Baat beautifully played by the flautist Beth Stone.
“The quintet plays with impeccable ensemble, beauty of tone, and musicianship… a most impressive demonstration of the potential of this particular combination of instruments.”
