Christopher Krueger, flute

Peggy Pearson, oboe

Bruce Creditor, clarinet

David Hoose, horn

Philip Long, bassoon

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The Emmanuel Wind Quintet was a winner of the 1981 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. They formed in 1975, emerging from Emmanuel Church in Boston to perform Arnold Schoenberg's Wind Quintet, and since that time while an ensemble, performed extensively throughout the eastern United States, including at the Library of Congress in 1982.

They were known for their performances of important twentieth century wind quintet literature. They were acclaimed for their performances of works by such composers as Villa-Lobos, Nielsen, Elliott Carter, Jacob Druckman and John Harbison.

As part of their Naumburg Award, they received a commissioned work by Fred Lerdahl, his Wind Quintet: Episodes and Refrains, receiving its world premiere by the Emmanuel Wind Quintet on their Naumburg concert on April 27, 1982.

In addition, the Emmanuel Wind Quintet on this concert, gave the New York premiere of John Harbison's Wind Quintet, also a Naumburg commission (1979) for the Aulos Wind Quintet. The Emmanuel Wind Quintet performed this work more than forty times.

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Naumburg Concert, April 27, 1982, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

Emmanuel Wind Quintet, 1981 Chamber Music Award

Christopher Krueger, flute; Peggy Pearson, oboe; Bruce Creditor, clarinet; David Hoose, horn; Philip Long, bassoon

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‍Program

Schoenberg: Wind Quintet, Op. 26

Fred Lerdahl: Wind Quintet: Episodes and Refrains, World premiere and Naumburg commission

John Harbison: Wind Quintet, New York premiere; Naumburg commission (1979 for Aulos Wind Quintet)

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Program Note for Fred Lerdahl's Wind Quintet: Episodes and Refrains

Episodes and Refrains (1982), for wind quintet, was commissioned by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation for the Emmanuel Wind Quintet. It is about 13 minutes long and is in one movement, with the form subdivided into four refrains alternating with three episodes.

Refrain I is a slow, expressive melody played by the five instruments in unison. Refrains II and III successively expand and eleborate this melody into a heterophonic texture. Refrain IV is a da capo of Refrain I; the two function as a frame for the entire piece. The episodes derive in their underlying structure from the refrains. But in other respects the episodes are quite different: they are more contrapuntal, longer, faster, and with a character that is darting and explosive. They are all the same length and are variations of one another.

The whole forms a web of cross-references with alternating contrasts. The tensions produced are not so much resolved as contained by the formal symmetries.

Fred Lehrdahl

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Review excerpt, The New York Times, May 2, 1982

Music: Debuts in Review; Emmanuel Quintet Gives Lerdahl Premiere

"The Emmanuel Wind Quintet arrived at Alice Tully Hall Tuesday night ... first performance of Fred Lerdahl's somewhat studied but also lush "Episodes and Refrains" (1982) and John Harbison's Wind Quintet (1978), which, like the Lerdahl, was a Naumburg commission.. in the austere music it selected, the Emmanuel Quintet did admirably... the entire program attested to a noble degree of seriousness and commitment to the music of our time by the performers. - John Rockwell

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