Pentaton Ensemble with new programme

From student ensemble to established players on the national and international chamber music scene: Pentaton are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a top-class concert program. Also included: a Swiss premiere.

It all started exactly ten years ago in Rheinfelden, when the young Swiss wind ensemble Pentaton (written as ‘pentaTon’) gave its first concert in the Capuchin Church there. It was the prelude to a resounding success story characterised by highs and lows, and moments of human and musical happiness. The quintet has now given around 100 concerts at home and abroad, has successfully participated in  competitions, has performed at festivals and in concert series or has been involved in film recordings.

A special feature of this connection, which arose from two female and three male music students with common interests, has remained unchanged since the beginning, i.e. Pentaton still play in their regular line-up today: the oboist Dominique Steiner, the bassoonist Philipp Hösli, the clarinetist Nicola Katz, the flautist Aniela Stoffels and the horn player Ramon Imlig. Countless hours of making music together characterise their past decade, with the corresponding musical quality of a well-rehearsed team. Its repertoire covers all epochs, and the ensemble has received several prestigious awards for its achievements.

Pentaton have been making music together for ten years: Ramon Imlig, Nicola Katz, Aniela Stoffels, Philipp Hösli and Dominique Steiner.
Photo: PD

Concerts in Baar and Oberarth
Last June, exactly ten years after their concert debut in Rheinfelden, they played their first anniversary concert in 2021, a programme with compositions that have shaped the five in some way in recent years. Every year, Pentaton has put together its own concert programme and presented it to its regular audience in Central Switzerland, and the ensemble is now looking forward to two performances in the region. Next Friday in the Reformed Church in Baar and on Saturday in the Reformed Church in Oberarth.

They will play the wind quintet in G minor by Franz Danzi (1763–1826), the German contemporary of Haydn, who is regarded as a pioneer for the instrumentation of the woodwind quintet. This is the first time that Pentaton has interpreted a work by this important composer. On the other hand, the audience can look forward to a stylistically completely different work, a Swiss premiere: composer Marco Pütz (*1958) wrote the Woodwind Quintet No. 2 especially for Pentaton. The world premiere took place at the end of 2020 in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg. A work "that is tailor-made for us," say the five musicians. They have been responsible for world premieres and premieres of Swiss composers several times in recent years.

As the third work, Pentaton presents the "American" Quartet in F major by Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) in an arrangement by David Walter. It is one of the most popular and most frequently performed works by the Czech composer, and is considered a classic that unfolds a completely new, unusual charm as an arrangement for a woodwind quintet.

Anniversary autumn concert on Friday, September 10, 8 pm, in the Reformed Church Baar and on Saturday, September 11, 8 pm, in the Reformed Church Oberarth. Free admission (collection).