By Lyn Bronson
The Empire Brass blew into town last night, and they not only blew, they wailed up a storm of sound, the likes of which hasn’t been heard on the Carmel Music Society’s series in quite some time, and did we ever have fun!
We also heard the widest possible range of musical selections, from an early, circa 1500, Renaissance suite (sort of Carmel Bach Festival Brass Choir meets Masterpiece Theater) to Broadway and modern jazz. We heard it all last night, and the capacity audience at Sunset Center gave them a rousing ovation at the end.
Empire Brass consists of Rolf Smedvig and Marc Reese playing trumpet (or I should say various trumpets), Gregory Miller playing horn, Mark Hetzler playing trombone, and Kenneth Amis playing tuba. Europeans have been saying for years that the best brass players are found in the United States, and an evening with the Empire Brass confirms this in spades.
Talk about improvisation, we in the audience had a printed program that apparently was submitted to the Carmel Music Society approximately a year ago. A lot has happened to the group in the intervening time, especially a new CD that was recently released, so we ended up hearing quite a different program than we were expecting. But, it made little difference, for members of the group kept stepping to center stage to clue us in on what was going on. This was an important part of the evening’s entertainment, for these guys are very comfortable on stage and their informal, witty remarks to the audience went a long way to erasing the invisible curtain of silence that separates many performers on stage from their audiences.
One of the interesting aspects of this concert is its appeal to a wide variety of audiences. It could just as easily have been a part of Performance Carmel’s regular series, sandwiched in with programs of off-the-wall performance art. You could almost say that Empire Brass would be the perfect classical concert for those who hate classical music. It takes a special kind of audience to listen intently to a Mahler Symphony or late Beethoven Quartet, and this kind of audience is gradually diminishing. It is obviously being replaced with younger audiences reared on MTV — with a shorter attention span and requiring much lighter and more entertaining concert events.
Well, this was certainly one of those entertaining concert events. You haven’t lived until you have heard Kenneth Amis as tuba soloist in Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca. It was hilarious to hear this ungainly instrument (remember the commercials for “Use Ajax, the foaming cleanser — floats the dirt right down the drain” with its funny tuba obbligato?) navigating at breakneck speeds in the very fast and difficult 16th note passages. It wasn’t just a stunt, for it really made music on a very high level, and if Mozart could be brought forward to the 21st century in a time warp, he would split his sides laughing at what magic can be rendered with this venerable warhorse. I don’t know whether Mr. Amis has the breath capacity to play “Flight of the Bumble Bee” on the tuba, but if anyone in the world could do it, it would be he.
Amis also starred on the program as composer of an Allegro con brio movement of his Quintet No.1 for brass, and in this work he demonstrated his considerable gifts, not only as a composer, but also as a musician who thoroughly understands the strengths and weaknesses of the instruments for which he is writing. It was very effective and made you want to hear the remaining movements.
Trumpeter Rolf Smedvig, the principal spokesman for the ensemble, was heard in some spectacular solos, as was horn player Gregory Miller. Trombonist Mark Hetzler gave us some really soulful playing in the Satie Gnossienne No. 2. These fine musicians are all virtuosos in their own right, yet know when to subordinate their virtuosity in an ensemble situation.
There were a few transcriptions that failed to equal or surpass their original inspiration. The de Falla “Ritual Fire Dance” is nowhere near as effective as the orchestral or piano version, and the Slavonic Dance pales by comparison with Dvorak’s original orchestration. But, so many transcriptions did really work well. Among them were the arrangements of works by Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein.
If Empire Brass revisits us here, and I suspect that they will, don’t miss them the next time around.
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