| New
Series Shows Lots of Brass.
By
Frank Merkling, News-Times Arts
Critic, Danbury
News Times
- September 25, 2000
The
latest contender on the area
concert scene, a series grandly
named Command Performance, made
a grand debut indeed Saturday
night at Danbury High School. In
the city's largest auditorium,
with a printed program full of
ads, the ambitious newcomer
presented the pre-eminent Empire
Brass, a quintet plus a
percussionist. ...There were
massed flowers on stage. There
were refreshments after the
two-hour concert. The men of
Empire Brass were generous with
their virtuosity as well as
their shtick, and there's plenty
of both to go around. The
program, embracing both the
classics and jazz, included
Renaissance and baroque masters
such as Tylman Susato, William
Byrd, Anthony Holborne,
Pachelbel, Purcell and Albinoni.
It also included Debussy, Satie,
Falla, Prokofiev, Ellington and
Bernstein, whose trenchant theme
from "On the
Waterfront" served as
encore. All of this was rendered
to a fare-thee-well, most of it
arranged by the players
themselves such as second
trumpet Marc Reese, who scored
Gershwin's "blue"
prelude smokily, and tuba
Kenneth Amis, represented here
by his own "Bell Tones,
Ring," a premiere. Among
the others, horn Gregory Miller
and trombone Mark Hetzler stood
out for versatility as well as
skill. On percussion, Steve
Wilkes supplied bang-up
introductions and underscoring.
...Since one of the Command
Performance goal is to
"seek out new
audiences," the absence of
teen-agers in the audience was
disappointing. ...How will the
brave impresarios ever succeed
in bringing Branford Marsalis or
Kathleen Battle to Danbury, as
they hope to do, if potential
concert goers won't try
something new? |
