Entertainment or sacrilege? That rather depends on the subject matter. The dramatic content of Beethoven’s Fidelio is trivialised in Wendel Sedlak’s reduction for wind band but comedy is affected less by this sort of treatment. Like it or not, though, instrumental transcriptions were often the rage because they popularised operatic hits. Handel benefited too. In Mozart’s day, Johann Wendt adapted Don Giovanni and Die Entfuhrung for the then standard combination of oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn in pairs. Ulf-Guido Schafer, clarinettist of the Ma’alot Quintet, goes further. He uses them singly but adds a flute that also offers a better way of representing women’s voices.
The startling presence accorded these superb musicians is a bit too much of a good thing. Lower the volume and distance will lend enchantment to what is an enchanting disc – that is if you are willing to accept it on its own terms. Needless to say the conflicts and pathos, also integral to this opera, are nowhere to be heard. And the majesty of the military march ‘Bella vita militar!’ (No 8) is much reduced by the absence of trumpets and drums. Nevertheless, Schafer’s arrangements of his chosen sections are astonishingly adroit. Pick the sextet ‘Alla bella Despinetta’ (No 13) to experience how five instruments are deployed not only to suggest six singers but a host of orchestral colours as well. Most beguiling.'