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 SaluteRegional Music Lovers
Spectator Magazine
By: John W. Lambert
January 13, 2001
Regional music lovers who are bored with the same old stuff should check out the offerings of the North Carolina Wind Orchestra sometime. Unlike our resident mausoleum caretakers--including those who guide the destinies of our symphony orchestras--the NC Wind folks almost always come up with fresh material and deliver it with considerable brilliance. The group's January 13 concert in the Carolina Theatre was a sterling example of innovative programming. The all-American, all 20th-century affair began with Stravinsky's Circus Polka, which--thanks to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey--became one of that master's most performed works. (Yes, we know that Stravinsky was Russian, but he was more French than some Gallic composers, and he spent his last years in the US of A., having become an American citizen in 1945.) The short piece, intended as a ballet for elephants and choreographed by George Balanchine, turns up rarely on area concert programs. Conductor Michael Votta, Jr., led it with great aplomb, and his musicians played it grandly.
Charles Ives' Second Sonata, sometimes presented with optional flute and viola parts, has always seemed too large for piano, so giving the third movement, "The Alcotts," in a transcription for wind band by Richard Thurston made sense (to this listener, at least). The adaptation rarely sounded larger than life--one of the most fascinating aspects of the NC Wind Orchestra's concert was the amazing delicacy and restraint of much of the playing--but instead seemed "right" in many respects. The refreshing color of the original was present in copious abundance, and the piece was readily accessible--which, even under the best of circumstances, the original version routinely is not.
The Ives might well have been the evening's most important offering, but two other works trumped it, musically. The first of these was Ingolf Dahl's Sinfonietta, a three-movement work that is structured somewhat like a palindrome in that one hears much of the material twice--leading up to a central burlesque in the middle of the second movement, and then coming back to the finale. The program contained extensive notes on this and the other works offered, and Votta introduced each piece as well, making sure that the key elements so capably described in the texts were clear to those members of the audience who hadn't yet read them.
The other truly refreshing offering was a suite from Robert Kurka's anti-war opera "The Good Soldier Schweik," played by a reduced ensemble of perhaps 20 musicians. This could easily have been mistaken for Shostakovich, so sardonic and witty was its treatment of its themes. The opera on which it is based describes a soldier whose escapades might well have stemmed from the pages of Catch 22 (but it is instead based on a work by Jaroslav Hasek). This is a perhaps-unkind look at the military, but it presents views that many who have served will recognize immediately. As elsewhere during the concert, the playing was absolutely first rate--as well it should have been, given the presence in thisensemble of many of our region's top artists.
The grand finale was Donald Grantham's "Southern Harmony," played complete this time. (The exceptionally difficult last movement, "The Soldier's Return," is sometimes omitted by college and university groups.) This work is based on the collection of hymns that give the piece its title, and it offers outstanding band music in outstanding light. The first movement, for example, often suggests a great pipe organ (organs being, of course, wind instruments...) The second section treats the theme of "Wondrous Love" in a truly serene way that contrasts admirably with the third part, in which clapping conveys a sense of revival services. The finale is a powerful statement of both music and faith that showed off the NC Wind Orchestra's exceptional musical abilities brilliantly. The whole show, indeed, was splendid from start to finish in terms of execution, leadership, individual solo work (including some of the best snare drumming this side of Scotland), and programming. As noted at the outset, those who lament the staid offerings of some of our other musical groups here would do well to check out this 46-member group. This may be done on May 25, when the ensemble appears in Meymandi Concert Hall. (And incidentally, Votta leads the UNC Wind Ensemble and Brian Doyle in Dahl's Saxophone Concerto on April 26 in Hill Hall.)