Music: SIFM presents season’s finale

The 2010-11 Shelter Island Friends of Music season ended on Saturday night with a return visit of the Long Island-based chamber group, Canta Libre.

Many of this season’s programs have consisted of music groups with unusual instrumental combinations. Canta Libre embodies a string quartet along with clarinet, flute and harp! Since little concert music is written for such an odd mix, much of what they perform is transcriptions of works written for other instruments.

The most intriguing of these is the “Sonatine” of Maurice Ravel, originally a piano solo. Now, arranged for flute, harp and cello, this slight piece takes on far greater texture and interest than in its original solo form. The flute performances in this and all the selections were beautifully performed by David Wechsler, who filled in at the last minute for an indisposed colleague.

Canta Libre uses these different arrangements and transcriptions to great effect, especially in the more familiar pieces, like Weber’s “Invitation to the Dance.” It began life as a radiant piano piece and has been transformed into an orchestral show-stopper and an exciting chamber work. This big “tune” is instantly recognizable and has had such wildly divergent uses as the score for a beloved Nijinsky ballet and as the theme music for Benny Goodman’s radio program!

Two 20th century works by Michael Amorosi and Gary Schocker were disappointingly conservative for their time, and their timid reliance on lyricism caused both pieces to come and go, neither offending nor enlightening anyone.

But one piece made the entire evening a major success. The Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich’s “Angels in Flight” ended the program with a thrilling view into the state of contemporary classical music. Mozetich’s lovely melodies of exquisite sadness and beauty acknowledge the composer’s debt to his great predecessors. In fact, a Canadian biographer has said of Mozetich: “At last, someone who knows what Tchaikovsky would have written, were he alive today.”

The Canta Libre ensemble brilliantly rose to the challenge of this captivating score.