Compared with Paris, Venice, London or New York you might say that Vancouver is the sobaco of the world or at the very least the armpit of the Pacific Northwest.

And yet culturally and specifically in the theatre arts, dance and music are a phenomenon of sorts. Many of those cities cited above might want to hire Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's Bramwell Tovey to lead their orchestras. In fact every summer Tovey charms Nuyoricans as the Pops Conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

Early Music Vancouver and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra create programming of the 17th and 18^th century with a smattering of works from earlier and later periods. The city with the help of Victoria, Seattle, Portland, Toronto and Montreal is able to provide EMV with a long bench of exquisite performers of period instruments that fill the Chan Centre for the Arts.

And then there is the Turning Point Ensemble which produces concerts every year that tap in to contemporary new-wave music with the rarely performed symphonic works of Duke Ellington.

And baroque violinist Marc Destrubé, very well known abroad is not content in playing just the baroque. He is constantly pushing the envelope of the not often played quartets of Benjamin Britten and Bella Bartok with his Microcosmos String Quartet and with his La Modestine a very intimate peek into the small group baroque.

The new music/contemporary milieu in our city is branching out in all directions with a large core of young and youngish composers. Not only do we have a fine Vancouver Opera, but also the University of British Columbia Opera which graduates young singers of quality every year.

But there is one reason why some are not aware of this. It has to do with moribund state of journalism in Vancouver and the fact that music criticism and music education via well-written previews are on life-support. While I am a pessimist, retired dance critic and editor Max Wyman sees it differently. I am the twin who will not ride the red bicycle because I might fall and he is the optimistic twin looking for the horse after finding a bag of horseshit under the Christmas tree.

Why that tirade and or rant?

Today I went to a concert at St. Philips Anglican on 27^th Avenue near Dunbar. It is a lovely church in which its Musical Director Michael Murray (a fine pipe organist) organizes concerts that run the gamut from Purcell to new Vancouver composers  with solo cello.

Today’s concert was something almost new to me (I wrote about them here). It is the Cascadia Reed Quintet.

Let me clarify the doubts I may have had at one time about reed instruments:

Reed instruments include the oboe, the bassoon, the English horn, the clarinet and the family of saxophones.

Because the saxophones are made of metal they are reed intruments but not woodwinds.

Woodwinds include wooden flutes and recordersa as well as the bassoon, the oboe, English horn and the clarinet..

My doubts went beyond the above. It seems that wind instruments are in two categories, those that are made of metal and those which are not. Thus a recorder is a wind instrument as is a clarinet. But go figure where the sax falls into! Don’t ask me as I am not a music critic.

The quintet members besides being performers, also teach or are part of symphony orchestras. Colin MacDonald plays several saxophones but for the reed quintet it is the alto and the soprano saxophone. Olivia Martin plays the bassoon, AK Coupe the part metal (but it is still a woodwind) bass clarinet, Marea Chernoff plays the oboe and occasionally the English horn. Julliard graduate Christopher Lee does not have large incisor teeth and plays the clarinet.

For a fan of Early Music Vancouver, a quintet that has no string instruments (I repeat no string instruments!) is Champagne after a heavy meal. It represents a change that paradoxically with the sound of those woodwinds, I am reminded of warm and subtle baroque violins which is my attraction to EMV.

The program that I heard tonight included Suite la Triumphante – Gavot et ses six doubles (1726/27) by Jean Philippe Remaeu (1638-1764) arranged for reeds by Raff Hekkema.

Quintet in c minor, KV. 406 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) arrange for a reed quintet by Eudar Wesly.

When Remaeu was alive the clarinet had not yet been invented. It was then later popularized by Mozart. I believe that the bass clarinet came into existence in the 19^th century so AK (Anne-Katherine) Coope was very happy to be finally playing the Mozart and baroque music as nothing was ever written (some argue this point but I will not) for the bass clarinet in the 19^th century. And if the bass clarinet resembles a longish saxophone you can blame the inventor Adolphe Sax.

Both the above performances would have pleased many a grandmother and they did this grandfather.

The other pieces were all contemporary:  Échecs (2013) by César Lütger (b.1991), Raíces (2015) by Colin MacDonald (b. 1971) and arranged  for the quinted by him from the original work for Michael Murray’s  pipe organ..

The piece that had me stamping by foot in delight was Splinter (2014) by Marc Mellits (b.1966).

What is astounding about that piece is that I found it on Youtube. It is 15 minutes long consisting of 8 trees, the work is about trees). I was completely charmed by the lovely sixth River Birch.

In my continuing attendance of many concerts from Early Music Vancouver, to anything by my fave cellist Marina Hasselberg (I even go to the cemetery on Fraser and 41^st to hear her play) to the TurningPoint Ensemble, the Microcosmos Quartet, etc I hardly ever see any music critics. If I now about the concerts it has to do with the fact that I am on the email list of these groups. This is a shame. Only a few of us will know that the armpit we are smells so sweet.

Because Colin MacDonald is a teacher you can always count with complete, thorough and fun concert notes. Of the last tree (The Red Pine) of Échecs he wrote: “… and ending with the funky grooves of Red Pine.”

I would say that the Cascadia Reed Quintet is funky at that.

A couple of details of great importance. Both oboist Marea Chernoff and bassoonist Oliva Martin as in previous Cascadia Reed Quintet performances that I have witnessed still have an eye-popping taste for very fine and expensive shoes. And if anybody asks you how many reeds in a reed quintet? The answer is a tad complicated as the oboe and the basson have double reeds so the correct answer is 7. As for the grass/cane from which the reeds are made it is Arundo donax which is classified as an invasive weed in most countries including Canada.  The solution to that infestation problem is engendering more reed quintets.

Complete Splinter by Marc Mellis   by the Akropolis Reed Quintet