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.
Royal Symphonic Band Vooruit, Harelbeke
| Prelude from Tombelene | Godfired Devreese |
| Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra | Peteris Vasks |
| Interval/Intermission | |
| Divertimento for Clarinet and Band | Roland Coryn |
| Cantica de Sancto Benedicto (World Premiere) | Jacob de Haan |
Concert Review
Concert 11 was given by a band from Belgium who had received the accolade of World Champion in the 15th World Music Contest Kerkrade in 2005. At the risk of being a little cynical, and recalling the American World Series in baseball which only has USA teams, to win first prize in Kerkrade is certainly a tremendous achievement, and the band is excellent.
The opening work was scored for band by the composer’s son, and reminded me that for the 2003 Conference we recommended to the groups participating a score from the younger Devreese, as well as from Roland Coryn. Both works were sound contributions to the genre, and I suspect that those of us outside Belgium should be investigating Coryn and his music. For me this Divertimentowas too short; I wish it had been a Concerto and the ideas expanded. The great find of this concert was the Concerto for English Horn. I very rarely programme arrangements, since there is so much original music which I will never have time to conduct, but this concerto is absolutely gorgeous.
For the final work, Cantica de Sancto Benedicto by Dutch composer Jacob de Haan, the Band was joined by a joint choir from Chethams and Ireland. Jacob de Haan is one of the most popular and most played wind music composers of our time. His compositions, mostly written on commission, are known worldwide, especially the works that are based on film-music-like combinations of styles. Oregon, his most performed composition, brought about his international breakthrough. His oeuvre for wind band further consists of compelling concert works with different grades of difficulty, short concertante works, didactic material for beginners, entertainment music, and marches. He also writes various arrangements of existing classical works and chorals.
Concierto de la Banda Sinfonica Real de Vooruit, Harelbeke, Belgica
El 11vo Concierto de la 13 Conferencia Mundial WASBE estuvo a cargo de la Banda Sinfonica Real de Vooruit, Harelbeke, bajo la direccion de Geert Verschaeve.
Nada de lo que se escucho esta semana en la conferencia se asemeja a lo que se pudo escuchar esta noche con la banda de Vooruit. Sonido suntuoso, sinfonico, de mucha flexibilidad y riqueza timbrica, son la marca de fabrica de la mayoria de las bandas de la region de los paises bajos, como asi tambien lo son las de la region española de Valencia. El objetivo primario es el de imitar a la orquesta sinfonica en la manera de producir el sonido, para lograr un resultado blando, ampuloso e indirecto en la articulacion. Naturalmente este concepto representa solo una tendencia o escuela de las varias existentes en la actualidad. Lo fascinante de las orquestas como la Vooruit, es que a pesar del numero elevado de musicos que conforman el efectivo, el sonido esta siempre controlado y la ejecucion es precisa.
El programa presentado por esta banda, ganadora de la ultima edicion del famoso concurso mundial (World Music Contest) de Kerkrade, Holanda, fue de gran calidad musical. La primera parte comenzo con « Tombelène » del compositor belga Godfried Devreese (1893 – 1972). La obra, de estilo neo-impresionista, con una duracion de 10 minutos, es original para orquesta sinfonica, la transcripcion para banda fue realizada por el hijo de Devreese, Fréderic Devreese.
A continuacion se escucho una rareza, del compositor de origen latvio Peteris Vasks (1946), « Concierto para Corno Ingles », que tuvo como solista a Dmitri Mestdag. No es comun escuchar obras para corno ingles como instrumento solista. La obra, articulada en cuatro movimientos ininterrumpidos a lo largo de 23 minutos, propone pasajes liricos que contrastan con pasajes agitados, mas disonantes, con el uso de recursos de la musica minimalista. La parte solista es de gran dificultad, y ofrece pocos momentos de reposo. El mejor registro del corno ingles es el central, y es el que mas se escucha a lo largo de toda la obra, tornando ciertos pasajes un poco monotonos.
Luego de la pausa, se presento otro concierto, esta vez con el clarinete como instrumento solista, « Divertimento para Clarinete », de Roland Coryn (1938), con Marc Vertessen como solista. La obra de Coryn, antiguo rector de la Academia de Musica de Harelbeke, es ligera en caracter, y muy virtuosa para el solista. Lo remarcable de la escritura es que el clarinete nunca fue cubierto por la gran masa sonora de la banda, que no redujo su efectivo para presentar esta obra de casi 9 minutos de duracion.
El gran final del concierto fue para la reciente obra del holandes, Jacob de Haan (1959), uno de los compositores mas estimados y mas tocados en la escena musical de bandas amateurs europeas. « Cantica de Sancto Benedicto » presentada en estreno mundial, es una obra para coro, soprano solista y banda. La solista invitada de la noche fue la soprano irlandesa Daire Halpin.
Cantica de Sancto Benedicto, de casi 25 minutos de duracion, posee un lenguaje armonico accesible, basado en secuencias armonicas simples, para sostener melodias rapidamente memorizables. La obra fue un encargo de la ciudad italiana de Norcia, donde nacio San Benedicto.
El buen concierto de la banda Vooruit de Harelbeke, termino con un largo aplauso. Luego de que se repitiera, a manera de bis, la ultima parte de la cantata
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