Fanfare Reviews
from September/October 2000

Reviews: Gates - Shewan - Stamp - German Wind Band Classics

GATES Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble. Je m'endors. Flute Sonatina. Suite comique • Judy Hand (fl); Keith Gates (pn); Colin Allured (gtr); others • SUMMIT DCD 254 (47:27)

This is something in the nature of a vanity release or, perhaps more accurately, a recording in lieu of publication by two university professors. Composer Keith Gates and his colleague, flutist Judy Hand, both teach at McNeese State University in Baton Rouge, LA. I recite all this information, as I was certain, when I put the CD in the player, that I would be in for three-quarters of an hour of dull music by performers who were understandably obscure. Not a bit of it. The music is charming, in much the same way that Germaine Tailleferre, the female member of Les Six, was charming, and at the end I was sorry that the performers had not given listeners the full measure of what the CD would hold.

Keith Gates is that interesting phenomenon, the composer who does not write a note that one has not heard before and yet makes his possibly shopworn language as fresh as if it were invented yesterday. The closest approximation I can give as to what this music sounds like is to ask the listener to imagine a composer much influenced by Ravel as filtered through his most unlikely pupil, Vaughan Williams. Gates has a delightful melodic sense, and he succeeds, as I said before, in making his very tonal harmonies come across as something brand new. There does not seem to be a huge degree of progression in his aesthetic stance between the student work of 1969, Suite comique for flute, piano, and string quintet (with double bass), and the most recent work, the Concerto for Flute and Winds from 1996. Since, however, the earliest work is in many ways the most delightful this is not a particular liability. Written for Ransom Wilson while both men were students at North Carolina's School of the Arts, the Suite comique is a four-movement work of some 16 minutes. Gates's scoring throughout is imaginative, whether using the piano for splashes of color in the first movement or the extended duet for flute and viola that makes up the second. More of his melodic resourcefulness is heard in the next work, the Sonatina of 1991. In some respects the weakest work is the largest, the Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble. This may be partly a matter of recorded balance. The Winds of the Lake Charles Wind Symphony are recorded at some disadvantage to their soloist. Whenever the brass instruments enter the sound becomes distant and muddy, which, given how well everything else sounds, is probably showing the music off to poor advantage. The little waltz, Je m'endors, is something of an encore. It is very pretty and amusingly confirms the notion that all one can do with a folk tune is repeat it ever louder.

With the exception noted the recorded sound is fine if a bit resonant, and the performances seem to be all that one could ask. I hesitate to recommend this only because of the very short playing time, but it is a delightful recital.

John Story

SHEWAN Awake My Soul/Morning Has Broken. Elegy. King David's Dance. Psalm 98. The Prodigal Son. Suite for Trumpet and Piano & • Robert Shewan, cond; Roberts Wesleyan Chorale; Stephen Shewan (pn), Franz Anton Krager, Paul Shewan (tpt); others • ALBANY TROY349 (72:16)

& SOWERBY (arr. Shewan) Come Risen Lord

This is a very mixed bag. Stephen Shewan (b. 1962) is a member of a large musical family, many of whom are present on the this CD. The music is all religious in inspiration, with each work carrying a scriptural motto. This is the way of Messiaen, of course, but what we have here is about as far removed from the spiritual ecstasies of the great French composer as can be imagined. The notes claim John Rutter as the composer most similar to Shewan, not a compliment in my book, and to that one can add equal amounts to Bernstein and Barber at their blandest. The glowing exception to this is the Elegy for String Orchestra, an adaptation of the third movement of the composer's String Quartet No. 1. Here the composer's very conservative harmonic language and an unexpected melodic resourcefulness are put to stunning use. This is intended as a tribute to Samuel Barber, and it is worthy to stand next to the older composer's most famous work, high praise indeed. I would be most curious to hear the quartet the work is taken from, since this is far and away the strongest work here. The performance by the Moores School Symphony Orchestra (University of Houston) under Franz Anton Krager is luminous if a bit tinnily recorded. The other work I liked is the wind piece, King David's Dance, which is pure Bernstein in his West Side Story mode. Derivative, obviously, but great fun and over much too quickly at just under four minutes. The other instrumental work is the overlong Suite for Trumpet and Piano, which does not really pick up any steam until just before the end.

Of the choral works, the big cantata The Prodigal Son is an unrelieved bore. The composer alternates semidramatic solo lines with overly sweet choral writing for the narration. The influence of Rutter is front and center here. Several years ago I reviewed a disc of Leo Sowerby's music produced by the Shewan family, noting that, despite the fine choral singing, they were seemingly addicted to unlistenable solo singers. It is better here, although the unfortunate soprano from that disc reappears to similarly ill effect. One of the pieces on that disc was an arrangement of Sowerby's Come Risen Lord that I miscredited to Paul Shewan. I no longer own that disc, but I assume this is the same performance recycled. The arrangement of Awake My Soul/Morning Has Broken is overly clever and way too lush for the simple and moving original. The overly close miking doesn't help the feeling that one is being hectored. Psalm 98, the only digital recording here, is a much more successful piece, and is the pick of the choral works.

An earlier Fanfare review of Shewan's music complained about a lack of a strong musical profile, and I think that is about right. That he is capable of more is obvious, but for now I think this is for friends and family.

John Story

STAMP Cloudsplitter Fanfare. Pastime. With Trump and Wing. Ere the World Began to Be. Aloft! Prayer and Jubilation. In Final Obedience. Held Still in Quick of Grace. Fanfare-Sinfonia. Variations on a Bach Chorale. As If Morning Might Arrive • Jack Stamp, cond; Keystone Wind Ens • CITADEL CTD 88140 (57:07)

The Keystone Wind Ensemble is a concert band of approximately 50 woodwind, brass, and percussion players, founded in 1992 for the express purpose of recording new and traditional wind-band music. Sponsored by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the members have a direct affiliation with the university, and work under the direction of Jack Stamp, professor of music and conductor of bands. As a composer, Stamp's mentors have included Robert Washburn and Fisher Tull, with a more recent input from David Diamond, Joan Tower, and Richard Danielpour. The present disc contains 11 works composed since 1992, most of which have been derived from commissions from major wind ensembles, including the United States Air Force Band.

One of the problems facing composers in this sphere of music is the basic task of pitching the composition into the appropriate marketplace. Bands, by tradition, perform to audiences that expect middle-of-the-road music, tuneful and rhythmically energizing. At the same time composers are eager to prevent band music from stagnating, and find themselves treading a tightrope between the two objectives. Works that are aimed at the "classical" market normally end up falling between the two stools, Vaughan Williams and Holst being two composers who were conspicuous by their success in writing for wind in a purely classical style.

This long preamble is a prelude to an admission that, as I listened to this disc, I was never quite sure as to where Stamp is directing his music. The invigorating Cloudsplitter Fanfare and Aloft! are excellently scored works in the popular mood you would find in band concerts, and at the other extreme In Final Obedience is a deeply moving score on the subject of death. That "classical" side of Stamp's output continues in the Variations on a Bach Chorale, using the choral Have mercy Lord, and hear our prayer as the theme. At both extremes Stamp is a most gifted writer for this combination of instruments, always using the percussion section to very good effect. Baseball enthusiasts will be particularly fascinated by Pastime, a musical tribute to the Giants baseball team in the 1962 World Series.

Throughout the disc the Keystone playing is most enjoyable, the horns and trumpets suitably brilliant, with the reeds moving adroitly from pungency to silky smoothness as the music requires. The recorded sound has that tight acoustic favored by band enthusiasts, though it is clearly and cleanly defined.

David Denton

GERMAN WIND BAND CLASSICS • Timothy Reynish, Clark Rundell¹, cond; Royal Northern College of Music Wind O • CHANDOS CHAN 9805 (59:35)

HINDEMITH Symphony in B-Flat. TOCH Spiel, for Wind Orchestra, op. 39. SCHOENBERG Theme and Variations, op. 43a. BLACHER Divertimento for Wind Orchestra, op. 7. K. A. HARTMANN Symphony No. 5¹

Hindemith's 1951 Symphony for Band has had little luck on records. Frederick Fennell's precise, potent account with the Eastman Wind Ensemble was marred by uncharacteristic intonation problems. Hindemith's 1956 stereo recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra is superbly played but a bit stodgy. Werner Andreas Albert's Melbourne Symphony gives a forceful but rather monochromatic reading on a cpo disc. This new disc features brightly colored playing, but Hindemith's giant sonorities are too much for Chandos's reverberant recorded sound, depleting the symphony's power and blurring rhythmic niceties. In the end, I prefer the composer-led version; EMI's drier sound allows details to be heard and instrumental timbres to register.

Ernst Toch's Game is lightly scored; Reynish and Chandos capture its playfulness beautifully. The eight-minute piece is a delightful addition to the repertoire, especially its finale, marked Buffo. Schoenberg's Theme and Variations comes as a startling contrast; the performance is rather wooly and general, dimming the character of individual variations. Boris Blacher's Divertimento, also new to recordings, consists of two brief parts: Intrada is a joyful collection of fanfares reminiscent of the opening of Borodin's Second Symphony; March is Elgarian pomp and circumstance, with slightly odd harmonic progressions suggesting a tongue in cheek.

Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Fifth Symphony, subtitled "Sinfonia concertante," is a stunning success here; the young conductor--Clark Rundell studied with Timothy Reynish--elicits tighter playing, and the recorded sound is less reverberant. The second movement, Hartmann's exquisite meditations on the opening bassoon solo of Le Sacre du printemps, floats magically, and the finale is exceptionally clean and bright. A lovely, subtle solo trumpet adds the final touch. After a disappointing start, this disc ends up a winner.

James H. North

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Fanfare Reviews from September/October 2000

Fanfare Reviews
from September/October 2000