Coleman Winners Show Depth, Confidence

The 51st annual Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, held Saturday, yielded four impressive winning groups, heard Sunday in Caltech’s Ramo Auditorium in Pasadena.

This year’s Saturday finalists, 14 in all, included two saxophone quartets, a trombone quartet and an oboe trio, as well as more conventionally constituted ensembles. Taken together and in contrast to many competitions, they showed a healthy regard for 20th century music--pieces by Carter, Berio, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Messiaen, Bartok and others were in the offing.

Winners of the $1,500 Russell Award, the Reading Winds, from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, whipped merrily through the First Wind Quintet of Jean Francaix, fingers flying in a blur.

The $2,500 Saunderson Award went to the Avalon String Quartet from Northern Illinois University, which gave a tightly honed and deep-thinking interpretation of Beethoven’s “Harp” Quartet. Among the reading’s many merits: bursting dynamic contrasts.

A mixed ensemble from Oberlin Conservatory calling itself eighth blackbird won the $3,500 Coleman Award. In Webern’s arrangement of Schoenberg’s Opus 9 Chamber Symphony, these players showed an unremitting intensity in the intricately kinetic landscape and a professionally assured technique in the most demanding situations. It was exhausting just to listen to.

The $3,500 Coleman-Bartsow Award was bestowed on the Elm City Ensemble, a quartet from Juilliard, Eastman and Yale. It performed the seldom-encountered Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano by Hindemith with a wonderfully resounding and expansive expressiveness, uncovering a Brahmsian array of sounds and emotions.

The judge’s panel included two local worthies, oboist Allan Vogel and pianist-conductor Grant Gershon, as well as cellist Peter Rejto, hornist-conductor William Purvis and violinist Andrew Dawes.