MUSIC REVIEW : Hexagon Soars Above Modest Musical Fare

Some inequities in music may never be righted. Consider the distribution of solo concertos, for example. Violinists may choose from a surfeit of concertos ranging from Vivaldi and Bach to Prokofiev and Shostakovich. But, when the poor violist goes to select a concerto, the cupboard is pretty bare.

Similarly, the repertory of chamber music for strings is as rich as the store of chamber music written for winds is meager. Hexagon, a New York-based wind quintet plus piano, labored valiantly to overcome this handicap in its Sunday evening recital at San Diego’s First Presbyterian Church.

Given the paucity of music for this type of group, it was hardly surprising that the ensemble’s high level of performance soared leagues above the music on the program. In addition to Beethoven’s E-flat Quintet, Op. 16, one of the handful of pieces the composer wrote for winds, Hexagon offered the premiere of Scott Eyerly’s “Music for Six” and Ludwig Thuille’s indulgently arch-romantic Piano Sextet.

In this modest company, Elliott Carter’s 1950 Etudes and a Fantasy for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon stood out. Each etude is a brilliant miniature as intricately designed and vividly colored as cloisonne. Hexagon chose five of the eight and played them with affectionate precision. The group infused the more extended Fantasy, which included the welcome humorous touch of a slightly tipsy fugue, with animated fervor.

Eyerly, a young American composer who has achieved some success at musical theatre, provided Hexagon a well-crafted neoclassical sextet of surprisingly retrograde idiom. Its blissfully tonal style embraced accessibility with a vengeance, and the bouncy first movement sounded as if it had been cloned from Francis Poulenc’s Sextet. The lyrical middle movement with its floating harmonies displayed more of an original stamp, but Eyerly’s loosely organized finale sounded inconclusive, more like the opening movement for some other work. Oral program notes of a self-congratulatory nature were provided by the composer.

Hexagon established its musical identity in the program-opening Beethoven Quintet: a precise, deftly balanced ensemble with persuasive drive and elegant detail. The reed players, especially oboist Matthew Dine, cultivated a sweet, supple timbre that gave the Beethoven a decidedly Mozartean flavor. Oddly, horn player Victoria Finn favored a wider, more orchestral sound, one that fared better in Thuille’s Sextet. Pianist David Korevaar, a former San Diegan, took a particularly aristocratic approach to his role in the Beethoven Quintet. If his articulation tended to be a bit dry, he did achieve notable clarity.

Thuille, a 19th-Century German composer whose style fused Brahms’ concern with form and Saint-Saens’ predilection for perfumed melodies, is rarely performed. The young players let out all the stops in his Piano Sextet, maintaining admirable composure in the Gavotte, an unintentionally silly movement that verged on high camp.

Other members of Hexagon are flutist Susan Rotholz, clarinetist Alan Ray and bassoonist Michael Finn. The program was sponsored by the church’s concert series and the Greater San Diego Musical Merit foundation.