Word: brasses
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Featuring an expanded percussion section, it made many rhythmic demands that the orchestra faced with mixed results. Of the piece's five themes, only two were as compelling as the other music on the program: an angular theme for strings and a long chorale that sounded best in the brass. Once again concertmaster Salley Koo was first-rate in her frequent solos, as were the winds when they inherited the string theme. Though the performance seemed shaky except for a cadenza-heightened, wonderfully careening climax, it was still convincing...
...demanding a bigger share of the nation's resources. Tens of thousands of officers and hundreds of thousands of soldiers are busily engaged in the pursuit of commercial interests from chicken farms to karaoke bars as part of an almost comical program of self-financing, but the top brass is not joking about its determination to modernize...
...string section, all of which were handled perfectly by the orchestra. The effect produced by the period instruments on a piece normally performed by a much larger orchestra was interesting; the thin, pure sound of the violins juxtaposed with the raw yet perfectly controlled sound of the winds and brass showed tight classical finesse...
William Schuman's Third Symphony occupied most of the second half of the program. This formally rigid piece demands a balance between strings and brass that was not always present in this performance. In the opening "Passacaglia and Fugue," to use the talk of the trade, the trumpets could have been shooting ducks out of the balcony. But this is only a quibble when one considers how carefully Previn articulated both crucial ingredients, the ground of the passacaglia and the subject of the fugue...
...brass was exquisite in the "Chorale and Toccata," where oboe and clarinet solos were also solid. The climax of the "Toccata" is a wonderfully weird, blocky theme for the cellos alone, which came off perfectly. The whole performance made one of America's greatest symphonies accessible and enjoyable...