Music Reviews : Toyon Quintet Opens Chamber Music Season at UC Irvine With Some Color

IRVINE —  The Toyon Woodwind Quintet opened the third season of the UC Irvine Chamber Music series Sunday night. While the program of 19th- and 20th-Century French compositions did not tax audience intellects, it did at least tickle fancies at the Fine Arts Concert Hall.

The jaunty red bow ties with matching cummerbunds sported by Gary Bovyer and Lawrence Kaplan should have hinted that this was not to be an evening of grave profundity.

Instead, the recently formed quintet--Leanne Becknell, oboe (replaced on this occasion by Leslie Reed); Bovyer, clarinet; Rose Corrigan, bassoon; Carol Bacon Drake, horn; Kaplan, flute (all except Becknell and Kaplan are UCI faculty members)--teased their listeners with good-natured humor--particularly in the impish Allegro of Ibert’s “Trois pieces breves” and the tongue-twisting flutter of tripping motives in the Vivace of Taffanel’s Quintet.

But the humor was strengthened by focused tone, well-considered balance and technical ease. And, despite the frivolous nature of some of the selections, the quintet members did not fail to attend to minute details of phrasing and dynamic sweep. Moreover, the cotton-candy fluff of Ibert and Taffanel did taste of enough sugar and fun that one hardly minded the lack of substance.

The remainder of the program sparkled with elegant pastoral indulgence. Kaplan’s flute served Debussy with a shimmeringly round-toned “Syrinx.” Clarinetist Emily Bernstein and bassoonist John Steinmetz joined the quintet for the poignant folk scenes of d’Indy’s “Chansons et danses.”

Two solos highlighted this final septet--Drake’s beckoning horn passage and Reed’s searchingly caressing oboe melody. These, coupled with the restraint and coordination that had characterized earlier offerings, created a movingly pensive closing.