Washington Symphonic Brass 15th Anniversary Celebration

with Leonard Slatkin, Guest Conductor

Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Terrace Theater
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
and
Monday, October 15, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts
Annapolis, MD

Less Is More for Washington Symphonic Brass

From The Washington Post Style Section; Tuesday, October 16, 2007; Page C04

National Symphony Orchestra conductor Leonard Slatkin led the Washington Symphonic Brass at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater on Sunday, winning over a capacity audience with a magnificent sampling of the sonority gradations possible with such an ensemble. Two dozen or so musicians -- an expansive brass section surrounded by a formidable battery of percussion and timpani players -- packed the theater's modest stage. Some players, alternating on small and large versions of their instruments, plus an array of the gigantic tuba and euphonium mutes, occupied every nook and cranny of their space.
Yet, it is just this type of grand symphonic brass ensemble that allows for a countless range of pitch, timbre, articulation and dynamics: a multitude of sound possibilities comparably limited, for example, by the traditional brass quintet. Sunday's music -- Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and Respighi's "Roman Festivals" -- are usually performed by a symphony orchestra including strings. Referring to the NSO forces, which Slatkin directs at the center's Concert Hall, he said, "But you know, I don't miss the other guys." Sunday's instrumental combination reimagined these scores.

The ensemble opened with a memorial tribute to the group's co-founder and conductor, Milton Stevens; the musicians offered a wonderfully tranquil arrangement of Brahms's "Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee." Here the solemnity was underlined by a glistening, molten legato. In the Mussorgsky and Respighi, one couldn't ask for more agility -- especially striking in the lower instruments -- plus ensemble and balance, all these factors bathing themes and subsidiary lines in a new light. The massive Mussorgsky and Respighi arrangements summoned an unending span of surging colors, articulations and contrasts alternating between delicately muted instruments and booming forte barrages.
After intermission, a brief contrapuntal piece by Carl Nielsen brought audience laughs as the players joined the performance one by one, followed by Slatkin ambling onto the stage and silencing them in equally piecemeal fashion.
-- Cecelia Porter