an enthusiastic audience welcomed the Haffner Wind Ensemble at the Courtyard for the final concert of the Hereford Concert Society's 2007 season. The performers were aptly chosen, as their director, oboist Nicholas Daniel, is president of the society.
Their programme consisted of two works by Mozart. The opening work was an excellent arrangement for 14 wind by Maurice Hodges of one of Mozart's great piano duet sonatas, K497, which itself often sounds to many duettists like a wind serenade - themes, counter-themes, melodic fragments and snippets seem to cry out for instrumental treatment, and Hodges' arrangement brought out the best in the Haffner players.
The evening's highlight was a wonderfully clear and at times very moving account of the great Serenade for 13 wind, K361, the Gran Partita, the grandest and most sumptuously scored of all Mozart serenades.
Daniel allowed his players plenty of room for the wonderful interplay between instruments and the glorious sound which so characterises this masterpiece of the repertoire.
Michael Channon
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