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Printer-Friendly ModeBand gives strong performance
April 24, 2006 —
SVSU's Concert Band put on a fine performance last Monday in The Malcolm E. Field Theatre for Performing Arts, playing some extremely difficult music with precision and vigor.
Scott Tuttle's clarinet solo in A Tribute to Artie Shaw and the full band's near-mastery of Leonard Bernstein's Candide Suite were the highlights of the evening, although every piece was enjoyable.
The band opened with an arrangement of John Philip Sousa's The Liberty Bell, a fairly simple march that was played well. The main melody of the piece was delightful and the brass section of the group stood out, playing the punctual themes skillfully.
After a brief introduction by Director William Wollner, the band continued with Robert W. Smith's highly emotional To the Summit.
Smith's work opened with a drawn-out buildup, which charged the atmosphere in which the rest of the song would operate. About a third of the way through, the piece bursted into a frantic pace, reminiscent of the music one may hear during the chase scene of a movie; the song finished strong with a triumphant rephrasing of its main melody.
Afterwards came what was the most entertaining piece of the evening, James Christensen's arrangement A Tribute to Artie Shaw, featuring Tuttle playing the solo clarinet. The piece had a jazzy, campy, if not quite raunchy feel to it. Bawdy saxophone and clarinet lines dominated the whole work and were especially noticeable when the tempo slowed towards the middle of the piece. The overall tone of the song was freewheeling and languid, especially when the pace picked up near the end.
After extensive applause for the Artie Shaw piece, the band performed a virtual 180 - the next suite on the program was Gustav Holst's Second Suite in F for Military Band.
Holst's work must have been extraordinarily difficult to play; this was the only performance of the evening in which one could clearly hear repeatedly missed notes and bungled passages. This is not to detract from the overall quality of the work, however. The brisk opening of the first movement, the melancholy reflection of the second and third movements, and the exciting buildups reminiscent of a folk song in the final movement were all played capable and rendered the entire suite highly enjoyable.
Following a brief intermission, the Concert Band's brass ensemble performed three chorales for brass choir, one written by J.S. Bach, one written by his son, and another written by Carl Ludwig (all three were arranged by Paul Whear). The chorales sounded very much like one would expect: deliberately slow, melancholy, legato pieces that are utterly pleasing to the ears. This was the brass ensemble's first performance, and it was a fine one.
The full band took the stage following the last chorale, and began another challenging piece, Leonard Bernstein's Candide Suite, which was transcribed and adapted for concert band by Clare Grundman. The entire work sounded like the backdrop for a 1950s or 1960s urban drama, which is perhaps unsurprising, given that Bernstein became famous for composing soundtracks to films like On the Waterfront. The opening movement was charming and upbeat; as the song progressed into the middle sections things took on a decidedly more serious tone.
However, by the end of the piece the song had reverted back to the mood of its first movement and thankfully, the technical demands of the work were met and the piece was well-received by the audience.
The concert band finished the evening with R. Vaughn Williams' Folk Song Suite, a collection of highly recognizable tunes including "Seventeen Come Sunday," the main melody of which any American would easily recognize. The band played the familiar pieces with the utmost competence; the slower "My Bonny Boy" in particular was executed flawlessly. A vigorous round of applause capped off the highly enjoyable evening.
There is a performance titled Music of the Renaisscance XIV taking place in Founders Hall tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. All are invited to attend and admission is free.