Orchestra News Coverage
May 16, 2007 | NC Wind Orchestra Presents "Time and the Winds" - June 3, 2007 May 13, 2005 | NC Wind Orchestra Concludes Season with Blaze of Glory January 2004 | Belatedly, A Big Berlioz Birthday Bash January 25, 2004 | Votta Has a Midas Touch January 13, 2004 | Leader Marries Brass, Wind Well January 30, 2003 | Votta Evokes UNC Group's Best January 13, 2001 | Regional Music Lovers May 26, 2000 | Copland SaluteCopland Salute
Spectator Magazine
By: John W. Lambert
May 26, 2000
Copland centennial celebrations continue, but other presenters will be hard-pressed to top the big Copland salute offered May 26 in the Auditorium of Needham B. Broughton High School by the North Carolina Wind Orchestra. That's because this program was, for openers, all Copland, and in addition it encompassed several rarely heard scores of uncommon importance. The NC Wind Orchestra is our premium-quality wind band; its membership includes many leading professional players, culled from major educational institutions and the best area performing organizations. There's depth in its ranks that reminds one of some of the world's leading symphonic ensembles--so much so that one could probably staff half a dozen (or more) orchestral wind, brass, and percussion sections with its players and still have enough left over to top off all of our community orchestras.
The program, crafted with skill by Conductor Michael Votta, Jr., began with the ubiquitous "Fanfare for the Common Man," beautifully realized. This was balanced, at the start of the second half, by the "Inaugural Fanfare" (1969, rev. 1975), one of Copland's last works and one of his knottiest. It is hard to imagine what the citizens of Grand Rapids thought at its premiere. Votta's notes state that it is written in Copland's "mature" style, and that is true. There's Copland in the piece, of course, but not the Copland of the familiar ballets and patriotic works that earned him widespread popularity with, well, the Common Man. "Quiet City" (1939-40), given in an arrangement by Donald Hunsberger, featured the stellar playing of trumpeter Don Eagle and English hornist Bo Newsome, along with comparably fine contributions from a smallish ensemble. This meditative piece is based on incidental music for a play of the same name by Irwin Shaw.
In marked contrast, "Emblems" (1964) was a return to the austere, angular style of Copland's late period. The composer seems to ape the abstract expressionists in this music, hurling large masses of contrasting color at his audience and then combining them before our very ears. The fact that the tune of "Amazing Grace" is woven into the fabric doubtless helped those who were unfamiliar with the style. The excellent notes explained the composer's purpose in accepting the commission (from the then-President of the College Band Directors National Association), but omitted what was apparently a key consideration for Copland, who wrote that he hesitated until he was told it "would be bought sight unseen by at least two hundred bands!" (While on this subject, it would be remiss to overlook the superb biographical sketch that preceded the program notes themselves; this essay, which consumed four and a half pages of the booklet, was by three members of the US Army's Field Band, based in Washington, DC.)
After the aforementioned "Inaugural Fanfare," the program ended with two of Copland's most popular scores--the "Variations on a Shaker Melody from 'Appalachian Spring'" and "El salon Mexico." The composer arranged the ballet's familiar four variations on "Simple Gifts" for band in 1956 and then, eleven years later, adapted the piece for full orchestra. Here, as elsewhere during this admirable program, the playing was top-flight, and the results were profoundly moving. As it happened, "El salon..." (1936) was the earliest work given. The transcription, by Mark Hindsley, was superb, and it was played with the kind of precision and attention to detail that ought to be commonplace among our better orchestras but not always is. There was enthusiastic applause that lasted many minutes. The outstanding playing of six important musical works representing two diverse sides of Copland--and the works themselves, of course -- made the large audience's response all the more appropriate.