SUBLIME-A-TRON / Carion’s romp on Ligeti

A brilliant little video that proves bassoonists can dance. Much fresher than its name suggests, the Danish-Baltic group Carion turns the traditional woodwind quintet (flute, clarinet, oboe, French horn, and bassoon) into characters in a dazzling musical pantomime. The fivesome have internalized every note of Ligeti’s midcentury (1953) masterpiece, freeing themselves to focus on presentation. They banter, scold, swagger, and glide across a white-girdered loft in synchrony with their flawless playing. The bagatelles — musical “trifles,” a designation composers usually apply out of false modesty — are tributes to Bartók and Stravinsky by a youthful Hungarian creator on his way to becoming 100 percent original (Ligeti’s eerie clouds of sound provided 2001: A Space Odyssey half its mystique). It’s an important reminder that music is something one “plays.”

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