Birmingham Symphonic Winds
| Shortcut Home | Dana Wilson |
| The Ringing Isle | Jonathan Dove |
| Winter Dances | Fergal Carroll |
| Time Lines | Kit Turnbull |
| Interval/Intermission | |
| Divertimento for Band (World Premiere) | Guy Woolfenden |
| Infernal Ride | Kenneth Hesketh |
| Lux Aurumque | Eric Whitacre |
| The Canticle of the Sun | Martin Ellerby |
| Kirkpatrick Fanfare | Andrew Boysen, Jr. |
University of Louisville 12
Birmingham Symphonic Winds 12
It was a draw, in a high scoring game;
Louisville paid homage to the Grawemeyer and faculty composers, Birmingham to
some of the composers with whom they have been especially connected. They also
had an excuse, because through some misunderstanding they thought that they
were presenting a short programme of only nine works. To make up time they
added three more pieces, two by Guy Woolfenden, who celebrated his 70th
birthday rehearsing on the previous day.
Guy’s new piece, Divertimento, I liked very much. It had three movements: the first terse and argumentative, the second lyrical, tuneful and… well… beautiful, and the third an energetic dance. However, it was his performance of Gallimaufry which was for me the outstanding event of this concert and one of the best things of the conference — finely balanced and phrased, lovingly played by the band. Perhaps the most exciting thing about this concert was the control by both Guy and Keith Allen of sonorities and balance. Hearing the orchestra and Keith’s conducting develop over the past ten years has been fascinating, and they are now a well-drilled musical ensemble capable of great musical playing. They are capable too of dreadful lapses in taste, such as their final addition of Applause, the only work I believe to survive from Singapore and quite one of the worst pieces heard in what was a disappointingly mediocre conference musically. How the artistic planning committee could allow this to happen I do not know. Keith defended it by saying that he likes to stir up controversy – fine, but please don’t do it by playing a really bad piece at a World Conference which I have spent good money to get to.
They opened with one of my favourite minimalist pieces, Dana Wilson’s Shortcut Home, and they included works by Jonathan Dove, Kit Turnbull, Fergall Carroll, Kenneth Hesketh, Eric Whitacre, Martin Ellerby and Andrew Boysen. Again, as with Louisville, I wanted something of substance to relax into, but this like the Louisville programme was always interesting and invariably well played and conducted. The soloist in Martin Ellerby’s percussion concerto was the fascinating Simone Rebello, and we are truly lucky in UK to have Simone and Dame Evelyn, as well as Colin Currie and several other great percussion virtuosi.
©2007 WASBE and/or the contributing author/photographer