Edinburgh Music Review, Kate Calder
The five members of Lumas Winds met when they were in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, with the ensemble being established in 2018. Ambassadors for the wind quintet repertoire, they explore an eclectic range of music, with, as clarinet player Rennie Sutherland says, audience entertainment their priority.
An arrangement by Don Stewart of Leonard Bernstein’s sparkling Overture to ‘Candide’ certainly fulfils that brief, the witty juxtapositions of melodies and rhythms on six instruments, (including flautist Beth Stone’s piccolo) exploring three of the – often under-rated – musical’s numbers…
“Holst’s more sedate early work ‘Wind Quintet in A’ lay undiscovered for many years and only received its premiere in 1982. Its five movements feature beautiful parts for horn and flute as well as the quicksilver playing by all five in the Minuet’s double canon…”
Featuring elaborate syncopation and fast playing by all three, [Jean Francaix’s ‘Divertissement’ for oboe, clarinet and bassoon] is a delight for the audience but a fierce workout for the players on a warm night…
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A very short dramatic encore sends us home with ghoulish laughter. An excellent concert. Glasgow music lovers should look out for the Lumas Winds ‘Netherlee Chamber Music Festival’ in which they collaborate with other musicians in three concerts on 5th and 6th September, including Prokoviev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ and Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’.
