BARBER: “SUMMER MUSIC”; MILHAUD: “LA CHEMINEE DU...

BARBER: “SUMMER MUSIC”; MILHAUD: “LA CHEMINEE DU ROI RENT”; ARNOLD: THREE SHANTIES; LIGETI: SIX BAGATELLES; IBERT: “TROIS PIECES BREVES.” Barry Tuckwell Wind Quintet. Nonesuch 78022. These relentlessly perky players draw many an exquisitely calibrated breath in the course of these performances but rarely a romantic one. So the material that should emit a hazy, impressionistic glow--Barber’s 1956 fantasy and Milhaud’s unpretentiously conservative 1939 suite--instead sounds rather abrupt and calculated. No denying the effectiveness of this virtuosity, or the necessity for it, in Ligeti’s deft miniatures. EMI’s 4-year-old recording inclines to the steely.