Solano Winds holiday show delights audience
4 stars out of 4
The annual Solano Winds Community Concert Band holiday concert has become, for many, a much-loved tradition.
The concert on Dec. 16 held at the Fairfield Center for Creative Arts showed why.
Though opening with a confident reading of John Philip Sousa’s familiar “Semper Fidelis” march, the Solano Winds then moved to less well-known material. Claude Thomas Smith’s “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington in 1975, and consists of a series of variations on the Navy Hymn.
Under music director and conductor Bill Doherty, every section of the winds had a chance to shine, from often aggressive trumpets and commanding horns to cleanly articulating clarinets in numerous rapid passages, from swirling saxophones and flutes to forthright trombones, euphoniums and tubas.
The percussion drove the pace with ferocious precision, while Wally Hunt’s thunderous tympani emphasized the inherent drama in the piece.
Though much of 20th century American composer Charles Ives’ music can be, at the least, austere, his “Old Home Days” suite is both accessible and melodic. The opening section, “Waltz,” featured lyrical trumpets introducing a theme which, when taken up by the flutes and woodwinds, built in intensity without losing any of its expressivity. The trombones had a great deal of fun with the familiar “London Bridge is Falling Down introducing dissonance where none was expected.
Guest performers Jonathan Knight on trumpet and Jonathan Brummel on trombone made the difficult look effortless in turn of the century composer Herbert Lincoln Clarke’s “Cousins.” Alternately brash and lyrical, with lilting melodies interspersed with speedy runs played in flawless unison, the piece garnered Brummel and Knight enthusiastic applause from audience and band members alike. The first half of the program concluded with “A Tribute to Stephen Foster” by contemporary composer and arranger Sammy Nestico. Emily Doherty’s wistful solo oboe passage in “My Old Kentucky Home” captured the hint of melancholy so characteristic of Foster’s music.
The second half of the program was dedicated to holiday music. In “Good Swing Wenceslas” Sammy Nestico, whose “Tribute to Stephen Foster” was a model of restrained intensity, showed the influence of his years playing with Gene Krupa and Count Basie.
Linn Benson’s horn opened with appropriate pomp, but muted trumpets and trombones soon introduced the promised swing elements, and the familiar Christmas carol became, if not raucous, at least far livelier, than is usually heard.
Then, percussionist and music educator Jennifer Doherty led an audience sing-along. She was not exposed for long, however, as children and adults alike enthusiastically joined her in singing several beloved holiday classics. These Christmas songs were then followed by contemporary composer Chris Sharp’s arrangement of “Hanukkah Highlights.” After an introspective opening, the clarinets, oboes and saxophones evoked an appropriately Middle-Eastern mood in the Mi Y’maliel section, while the band as a whole threw themselves into the “Dreidel Song” finale.
Played with near-military precision, Victor Herbert’s (1859-1924) “March of the Toys” (in an arrangement by Otto Langley and Herbert L. Clarke) was lively, sparkling and polished. The trumpets, from the brash opening fanfare through to the triumphant ending, played with vivacious wit, while the flutes, clarinets and saxophones were models of humorous pomposity.
Chip Davis, long-time arranger for Christmas music super-group Mannheim Steamroller, has written a haunting version of “Stille Nacht” which, in an arrangement by Robert Longfield, the Solano Winds played with great sensitivity. Davis Fischer-Walker on bassoon played with notable warmth in some exposed passages, while the woodwinds showed that one need not play loudly to play movingly.
Robert Sheldon, noted contemporary wind band composer, in a medley of Christmas songs entitled “A Most Wonderful Christmas “wrote an arrangement that convinces listeners that “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” should always and only be played on tubas and euphoniums. As a result, Dick Greenberger and Tim Mack (on tubas) and Delbert Bump and Ray Cabral (on euphoniums) were given a rare but deserved moment in the limelight.
To the delight of the audience, conductor Bill Doherty provided an encore, and the concert ended with late Solano Winds director Bill Briggs’ version of “White Christmas.”
Bill Doherty and the Solano Winds now-traditional Christmas concert has become a highpoint of the holiday season — this concert delighted from start to finish.
Kathleen Whalen is a music-lover and writer who lives in West Sacramento. She can be reached at kw1954ohio@yahoo.com
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=121848
Posted by Kathleen Whalen
on Dec 30 2011.
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