Review Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Imani Winds with Gilbert Kalish (February 9) by Daniel Hathaway Downsizing seems to be one of the buzz concepts of our era, but the ever-game-for-a-challenge Imani Winds took the idea to a new level of miniaturization on Sun- day afternoon in Oberlin's Finney Chapel, when that ex- cellent woodwind quintet, performing on the Artist Recital Series, impressed the sox off a good-sized audi- ence with their ear-boggling performance of Stravin- sky's The Rite of Spring in an arrangement by Jonathan Russell. Well, OK, not the whole piece, but Russell gives the quintet a good twenty-minutes worth of Stravinsky's 2".1$
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horn and bassoon, and it worked. In her introduction, oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz noted that the audience would be able to hear inner details that had heretofore been "covered up by loud percussion and obnoxious brass — you know who you are!" she joked to the bal- conies where some of those blushing conservatory of- fenders were sure to be found. The Rite 6 2

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Startin' Sumthin, an energetic overture that raised the curtain with jumpy motives and ".+.1%4+
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prowess of its members and its collective ensemble and blend. After noting that two of the group — Spellman-Diaz and Ellis — were Oberlin alumnae enjoying a homecoming to the Conservatory that afternoon, Imani continued with MacArthur fellow and jazz pianist Jason Moran's Cane, a suite of pieces chronicling the - 11 3(5$2
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Libertango, in a spiffy arrangement by Jeff Scott that gave several musicians important solo licks during a slow section and sent a happy audience out among the snowbanks probably wanting more but wary of putting Imani's seemingly indefatigable chops through an encore,

Published on ClevelandClassical.com February 11, 2014