Elevate sets stage with unusual Stravinsky
The blandly functional title of Stravinsky’s Octet for Wind Instruments doesn’t fully reveal the distinctiveness of this 1920 score, which forms the centerpiece for the season-opening concert by the Elevate Ensemble. The instrumentation is unusual (two bassoons, no horns) and the writing offers an oddball, glancing approach to the composer’s neo-Classical style.
The program of the Elevate Ensemble — one of the many entrepreneurial newmusic groups sprouting up around the Bay Area — features works for various combinations of these instruments by Stravinsky, Varèse, Jack Curtis Dubowsky and Dale Trumbore. It concludes with world premieres by Aaron Gervais and Nick Vasallo, the latter a concerto for four hands piano and octet featuring the dynamic Zofo duo.