New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble

Thursday, October 13, 2005, 8:00 PM
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston , MA

The New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble has for years championed recent music, their concerts being a frequent source of cutting edge listening pleasure. Sorry to say, their repertoire mostly disappointed this time around.

Peter Child's Fanfare for Brass Ensemble was the most satisfying listen this evening. Energetic, though speckled with dark elements, it's less Atlantic Seaboard oriented than much of his output -- distinctly polytonal in ways that suggest Stravinsky though eschewing any other style fingerprints of this composer. Brief, yet effective.

The rest proved substantial in conception but lacking in one or more crucial aspects. Concerto for Violin, Cello, Ten Winds, and Percussion by Leon Kirchner consists of two aggressively spoken movements filled with music that is Berg-level clangorous yet still scalar in organization (octatonic collections being a particular favorite here). But structures are very loose and busy ensemble textures swamp the string soloists far too frequently. Michael Weinstein's program notes notwithstanding, his Concerto for Wind Ensemble shows no evident articulation of promised sonata or scherzo formats. Its three movements come across as dense, undifferentiated, prolix slabs of unmemorable Expressionist-based fare. South-of-the-border idioms are intriguingly cannibalized in Michael Gandolfi's mostly triadic Vientos y Tangos . The choice to express its single movement as a quilt-like episodic construct does not convince however, imparting a slack pops-concert medley feel to the music. And regrettably, the textures too often seem heavy and claustrophobic rather than airy and deft.

Performances were very good -- in fact, the primary draw at this event. Charles Peltz led the players with careful skill, paying special attention to phrase shaping and larger-segment articulation. Borromeo String Quartet members Nicholas Kitchen (violin) and Yeesun Kim (cello) proved excellent when one could in fact hear them.

--David Cleary