Amram Quintet Outstanding

David Amram's Quintet for Winds is the 20th work commissioned by the Kindler Foundation since its organization 25 years ago, and it ranks as one of the best.

It received its first performance at the Textile Museum here last night, a bright and perceptive one by the Maryland University Woodwind Quintet.

As Arthur Nagle, Foundation vice president and secretary said just before the Quintet was played, "Actually this is the most contemporary work you ever hear because it was completed only seven days ago."

Well, It's flavor was certainly fresh and buoyant.

Amram, who lived in Washington for seven years and was first composer-in- residence with the New York Philharmonic, shuns the purely cerebral approach that marks so many contemporary works.

The Quintet appeals to the heart as well as the mind. Its mood is mostly lyrical and romantic and it is thoroly melodic. Textures of sound are lush and appealing.

There's fun in it. too. At one point Amram has the musicians detach the mouthpieces and whistle like the wind thru them, and make percussive sounds. In short, the Quintet is a work you'd very much like to hear again.

With pianist Emerson Meyers, four members of the Woodwind Quintet gave handsome performances of the Mozart and Beethoven E Rat Major Quintets (K.452 and Op. 16), and with all five of them. a superb one of Poulenc's lively and infectious Sextet.