HHH Concerts produced a feast of music for wind and piano for their 2019/20 season finale at St Christopher’s Church, Haslemere.

The visiting musicians were the talented London Mozart Players Chamber Ensemble, comprising Gareth Hulse (oboe), Timothy Lines (clarinet), Sarah Burnett (bassoon), Nicholas Korth (horn) and Sophia Rahman (piano).

Their programme consisted of two major works for the whole ensemble together with three shorter pieces for various trio combinations.

The Mozart Quintet in E flat for Piano and Winds (K452), with which the LMP Ensemble ended their programme, was written in 1784 at a time when the composer was making his living as a pianist.

The first movement is rather “concerto-like” and Sophia Rahman’s piano was suitably to the fore throughout.

The LMP Ensemble produced a beautifully balanced sound – this was a most effective performance of an undoubted masterpiece.

The other major work in the programme was the Quintet in E flat for Piano and Winds Op. 16 by Beethoven, which opened the concert.

Although Mozart’s quintet was not published until 1801, and Beethoven wrote his in 1796, it is possible Beethoven heard the Mozart work in Prague and he may have seen the original autographed manuscript.

Unlike Mozart, Beethoven uses longer phrases and often sets the piano against blocks of wind sound.

In this performance the piano was set back behind the four wind players and was drowned on occasions. Nevertheless, this was a compelling and powerful performance.

Apart from these major works for the whole ensemble, there was also much to be enjoyed in the smaller works for different combinations of instruments.

A single-movement Serenade in F minor for Oboe, Horn and Piano by the lesser-known Robert Kahn (one of no fewer than nine permutations of instrumentation in which the piece can be played), in a post-Brahmsian idiom, produced genial and relaxed playing from the Ensemble and a delightful trio by Jacques Ibert – Cinc pièces en trio for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon, dating from 1935 was given a lively, bright performance, the opening movement Allegro vivo being especially attractive.

A sprightly performance of Poulenc’s 1926 Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon FP43, dedicated to Manuel de Falla and full of youthful verve, was most enjoyable and suitably demonstrated the composer’s sublime gifts of invention and craftsmanship. Altogether a fine end to a rewarding season.

* Review by Peter Andrews