The Wind Ensemble conducted by Greg Miller at the University of Alabama was really an eye opener in every respect. The music on offer was indeed wide ranging and full of modern sounding effects and all this combined together shows that the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble is truly a top notch orchestra.
The first work on offer was the Kirkpatrick Fanfare by Andrew Boysen which was composed in 2001. Here one could admire the voluptuousness of the sound of the Alabama Wind Ensemble which demonstrates the wide ranging varieties of this ensemble. Although some of the top brass notes did appear to squeal slightly at the end, the work did come across as very beautiful indeed albeit slightly abrasive.
Dwayne Milburn’s American Hymnsong Suite is similarly ebullient in its portrayals of hymn song influences on the American song psyche. Split into four movements, it demonstrates the utter beauty of the lower ranges of the brass ensemble and although composed in 2003 it is still very much tonal in its perspective and palette.
Dusk by Steve Bryant is a modern work which makes use of a considerable amount of dissonance while the end result is slightly opaque. Here the Wind Ensemble did not seem to b totally at one with the work and it obviously suffered slightly for it.
Xerxes by John Mackey is also quite a complex work but here the Alabama Wind Ensemble are fully conversant with the musical procedures and their interpretation was pretty riveting specially in the closing sections. This is a work which dates from 2010 and although again quite modernist in outlook, the perspective is pretty much approachable.
After a lengthy interval we had Morning Allelulias for the Winter Solstice, a really fantastically varied work which made the most out of the varied possibilities of the wind ensemble. Ron Nelson who was born in 1925 is perhaps much more rooted in the past than the other composers which had been put on before however he also has his modernist touches.
Gaspar Cassado’s Toccata is also very much part and parcel of the Alabama Wind Ensemble’s repertoire and it came across as quite brilliant in every department. Earl Slocum’s transcription is also excellent in every respect and shows the strength of the wind instrument’s properties.
Charles Rochester Young’s Concerto for Flute Ensemble and Orchestra is also a very fine work demonstrating the unique capabilities of the flute as an instrument which has varying tonal palettes.
‘Elegy’ by John Barnes Chance is another fine work with lots of intrinsic parts which show the tonal palette of the wind ensemble accordingly. ‘AwayDay’ by Adam Gorb is another progressive work which shows the direct side of brass ensemble playing accordingly and which is surely one of the finest works having been composed for brass ensemble this side of the century.
Andra Bohnet was definitely a fine soloist playing with panache and poise throughout also demonstrating that the solo instrument was definitely something which has a lot of colour accordingly. Ishbah Cox is also an excellent conductor bringing out the colour and different tonal palettes of the separate instruments accordingly. All in all this definitely was a concert to remember.
Works Cited:
Baines, Anthony (1993). Brass instruments: their history and development. Dover Publications. p. 300. ISBN 0486275744. Print
