Untold.

Review of our new CD
Musical Pointers

Blackheath Concert Halls, London March 2003
Dr Peter Grahame Woolf
Musical Pointers

International Festival Harrogate 2000
Gerald Larner
The Times

At the first of the Harrogate Festival's young musician's concerts in Christ Church the next day everything was mercifully in order and perfectly audible. Quintessence, a dedicated and promising wind quintet, had prepared an intelligently varied programme with evident care and made extra-special efforts with a new work by Philip Cashian. Commissioned for the occasion and inspired by a line from a poem by Kevin Crossley-Holland, among the bleached stars and suns, is scored for bass flute, woodwind trio and off stage horn.

Whatever Cashian was trying to do with the trio in the fairly arid central section of the piece, the blending and gradual etiolating of bass flute and off stage horn colours at the end were most sensitively and effectively executed.

The Space, London 1998
Dr Peter Grahame Woolf
The Guide

The brilliant young wind quintet gave superbly assured accounts of modern classics by Nielsen and Hindemith, and more notable novelty by a young composer worth watching, Tansy Davies. A full house of enthusiastic supporters helped to tame the Space's lively accoustic - ensemble and tonal blend were uncommonly satisfying.

Quintessence disc one
Laurence Joyce
Pan Magazine

A delightful recording of music for wind quintet… Susie Hodder-Williams' elegant flute playing is finely matched by oboeist Rebecca Wood, and the woody and rounded clarinet tone provides a solid point of balance between the upper woodwinds and the gutsy horn and bassoon…although the individual musical personalities of the five performers are always evident, this is seldom to the detriment of the ensemble as a whole..the music is admirably suited to the energy in their playing.

Quintessence have entitled this CD disc one, which seems to indicate that there will be more recordings to look forward to. Until then, lovers of wind quintet music must make the most of what this disc has to offer. And any quintets who feel their performance or repertoire is getting a little tired and stale could do worse than to listen to this recording for fresh inspiration.