COMPACT DISCS

COMPACT DISCS

28 August 2004

NEW REVIEWS

TOP 10 WORKS FROM 7 COUNTRIES RECOMMENDED FOR SEPTEMBER LISTENING

Australia                 Ralph Hultgren                     Whirr, Whirr, Whirr!!!                     John Locke
Belgium                  Jules Strens                           Danse Funambulesque                   4949-MCD
France                    Eugene Bozza                       Children’s Overture                       CHAN 9897
France                    Camille Saint-Saens              Occident et Orient                         CHAN 9897
New Zealand          Christopher Marshall             L'Homme Arme                            4949-MCD
Scotland                  Cedric Thorpe-Davie           The Wee Cooper of Fife                Nigel Boddice
Scotland                  Martin Dalby                        A Plain Man’s Hammer                 Nigel Boddice
Sweden                   Christian Lindberg                Concerto for Wind Orchestra         4949-MCD
UK                          Nigel Clarke                        Samurai                                          4949-MCD
UK                          Kenneth Hesketh                 Diaghilev Dances                            4949-MCD

It is impossible to do more than navigate the tip of the iceberg of compact discs which pour out monthly from our colleges, schools and community bands. I listen out for discs which introduce new ideas on repertoire with works which perhaps eschew the usual formula and cliché of the wind repertoire. Four discs are recommended for September repertoire review which include pieces I would consider performing and which might throw up a work which could be useful for browsers.

DISC OF THE MONTH

CHAN 9897 FRENCH WIND BAND CLASSICS
Royal Northern College of Music
Conductor: Tim Reynish
Trombone: Joseph Alessi

Florent Schmitt                Dionysiaques                                                    10.57
Camille Saint-Saens         Orient et Occident                                              8.07
Eugene Bozza                  Children’s Overture                                            5.16
Darius Milhaud                Suite Française                                                 14.51
Hector Berlioz                 Grande Symphonie funebre et Triomphale         32.41

Music Net rating:
            Performance     * * * * *
            Recording         * * * * *

Standard repertoire apart from the Bozza, a really great example of the wind orchestra series commissioned by Robert Boudreau for the American Wind Symphony, and the Saint-Saens which I think is a great original 19th century piece, both well worth exploring.

Volume 1 4949-MCD
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY WIND ENSEMBLE
UK         Nigel Clarke                     Samurai
NZ         Christopher Marshall         L'Homme Arme
UK         Kenneth Hesketh              Diaghilev Dances
BEL        Jules Strens Danse            Funambulesque
SWE      Christian Lindberg             Concerto for Wind Orchestra

Frank Battisti writes:
VOLUME 1 (4949-MCD) contains music composed between 1930 and 2003.

Samurai by Nigel Clark is a sharp-edged virtuoso piece, very energetic and rhythmic.

Diaghilev Dances by Kenneth Hesketh is wonderfully impressionistic, elegant and at times, dramatic work – a miniature ballet, Hesketh’s homage to Diaghilev and the music he inspired.

Danse Funambulesque by Jules Strens’ inhabits the expressive world of Florent Schmitt’s Dionysiasques. It is scored for the European instrumentation of the Belgian Guides/French Garde Republicaine Bands.

Christopher Marshall’s L’homme Armé is based on the 15th century melody of the same name. It is a striking work with varied moods and colors.

The Concerto for Winds and Percussion by world trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg is a fresh, exciting, bold and outgoing work.

Since the pieces on these CDs were all recorded during live concert performances, they are not always technically perfect. However, Reynish and his players create performances that are musically interesting, expressive and lively. Reynish’s International Wind Band/Ensemble Repertoire Project offers all wind band/ensemble conductors an opportunity to hear works that they might not encounter in their local/national professional environments.

CELEBRATIONS - WEST LOTHIAN CELEBRITY WINDS
Conductor Nigel Boddice

CD1
Galloway Bouquet - John Maxwell Geddes
Cartoon - Thomas Wilson
Sirocco - Edward McGuire
Symphonic Ode - Peter Inness
The Wee Cooper of Fife - Cedric Thorpe Davie

CD2
Celebrations - Bruce Fraser
A Plain Mans Hammer - Martin Dalby
Lost mountain - William Sweeney
Portrait of a City - Alan Fernie

I am very happy to include this disc in my first web selection, not only because it features two of my favourite Scottish works, by Martin Dalby and Cedric Thorpe Davie, but because there is a link to an hilarious account of the funding, rehearsing and recording by conductor Nigel Boddice, in which he describes all of the repertoire in enthusiastic and affectionate terms. I hope that this disc is still available for anyone curious enough to track it down.

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA GREENSBORO WIND ENSEMBLE
Conductor John Locke

The University of North Carolina continues to bring out more in their series of excellent repertoire recordings. This disc contains some excellent performances of very useful repertoire

WHIRR!!!, WHIRR, WHIRR
Ralph Hultgren has written some very useful music, but none more immediately attractive than the piece which gives the disc its title. This is a fast-moving moto perpetuo, which within less than three minute time-span even has time for an academic Australian fugue which erupts into a swinging tune very reminiscent of the second theme in Hesketh's Masque and an ebullient finale. Don’t play this if your players are digitally challenged, or cannot tongue quickly, but certainly add it to the very useful number of brilliant opening works which have been written recently. Emblems receives a very healthy performance under David Kish, played with a nice balance of pompous weight and light dexterity; pompous is the opening Fanfare in Julie Giroux's To Walk With Wings, but this dissolves into an episodic "Overture" section, a sequence of attractive brief events. Giroux has a nice way with her musical language which springs from the West coast studios and study with John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. I often watch American films and wish that more composers of wind band music on both sides of the Atlantic could write as refreshingly for the concert hall as they do for the film studio, and she does. I think that this work is worth tracking down and playing.

Gloriosa is becoming one of our most important imports from Japan, and is here given a fine performance; some the odd discrepancy in ensemble in the brass interjections and the changes of pulse do not mar the general spirit, and the energetic sections received very committed performances. The Enigma Variations were a shock to the system; the theme for me was very much too slow in this scoring, and for the first time intonation was an issue, the old problem of flutes sounding flat, clarinets sharp. What was more worrying was the plethora of wrong notes, whether in the Slocum arrangment or this performance I know not. R.P.A. had very little of the grace and delicacy of most orchestra performances, some great playing in G.R.S. which works wonderfully; but for me Nimrod and the Finale just do not work.

USEFUL NEW IDEAS
A well presented and played disc then, which you might be able to get via the University Band Office. Track down Giroux's To Walk With Wings if you are looking for an American piece which eschews most of the usual clichés.

POSTSCRIPT
Next time you wonder whether to bring out the Bernstein Candide yet again, think about composers from Australia, Switzerland or the UK for a change. I would highly recommend the following four works to open any concert if the band is good enough:

Whirr, Whirr, Whirr!!!                 Ralph Hultgren
Masque                                       Kennth Hesketh
Awayday                                     Adam Gorb
Toccata                                       Oliver Waespi