Orsino Ensemble.  Lakeside, Nottingham. 27 February 2025,

5✩✩✩✩✩.  Review: William Ruff.

“Individual virtuosity and perfectly blended ensemble.”

The Orsino Ensemble is a group of five wind players: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn.  It’s not a combination you hear very often in the concert hall – which is a pity because the sound is delightful, especially when the players are as distinguished as the members of the Orsino Ensemble.  All are soloists in their own right: together they are much more than the sum of their considerable parts.

Their programme was imaginatively planned and covered four centuries.  The starting point was a concert rarity: short pieces which Haydn wrote for musical clock.  Automata of all sorts were the playthings of the well-heeled in the 18th century.  Haydn’s employer was an enthusiastic collector of clocks, some of which had mechanisms allowing them to play tunes on the hour.  Not surprisingly he got his court composer to come up with the music – and very elegant and charming it is too. 

Next came Valerie Coleman’s Umoja, a short piece inspired by the Swahili word for ‘unity’ and celebrating the first day of the African Christmas festival.  It may be brief but its textures are rich and it’s full of dynamic contrasts, lively melodies and rhythmic drive. 

Members of the Ensemble took it in turns to introduce the programme, in ways that were both informative and engaging.  When it came to the Wind Quintet of Danish composer Carl Nielsen it was illuminating to be told two things: firstly, that the opening movement was inspired by landscape (hence the important of instrumental colour and constantly varying textures); and secondly that the composer wrote this work for the characters of the original players.  ‘Colour and character’ certainly sum up the Orsino Ensemble’s approach.  The finale’s theme and variations were handled particularly well: the theme simple and folk-like whilst the variations explore a wide range of moods and textures, from the whimsically playful to the grand and noble.

In the second half the Orsinos played the Wind Quintet of Czech composer Pavel Haas, a musician of huge potential who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.  It’s another work which veers between sharply contrasting moods: from the deeply poignant second movement, for example, with its plaintive clarinet melody to the ‘Ballo eccentrico’ that follows, full of syncopated rhythms and playfulness.  Individual virtuosity was as impressive as the Orsinos’ seamless ensemble.

Finally came Beethoven’s Sextet, transcribed for wind quintet by Mordecai Rechtman.   It’s Beethoven in lighter mood, happy to be the entertainer rather than the fierce revolutionary.  The Orsinos’ playing of the opening movement highlighted the delightful interplay between the five instruments, each voice enjoying individual prominence and blending into the overall texture.  The second movement was given long, singing lines; the minuet had plenty of spring in its step – and the finale’s catchy, playful themes brought the concert to an exhilarating and joyous conclusion. 

Orsino Ensemble: Adam Walker (flute), Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Matthew Hunt (clarinet), Amy Harman (bassoon), Alec Frank Gemmill (French horn)