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A Bold and Brilliant Mix from the Canadian
Brass
By Mark Satola, Special to The Plain Dealer,
August 21, 2001
When it comes to selling classical music to a wide-ranging
audience, the Canadian Brass closes the deal like no other
ensemble.
Sunday night at Blossom Music Center, the players strolled
onto the stage (playing the New Orleans funeral march, "Just
a Closer Walk With Thee") and dazzled the capacity crowd
with a freewheeling program that ranged from Gabrieli to Gershwin,
with a few stops along the way for some wry and dry Canadian
humor.
Doubling as raconteurs were founding members Charles Daellenbach,
tuba, and Eugene Watts, trombone. The deadpan drollery with
which they introduced the music - "No animals were harmed
in the rehearsing of this piece," Daellenbach declared
about the "hunt" finale of Vivaldi's "Autumn"
from "The Four Seasons" - was the perfect foil to
some serious music-making.
And there's no doubt that these five guys from up north,
whose home base is Toronto, are some of the most talented
musicians around. Though they play with wit and theatrical
alacrity, the arrangements they tackle are nothing short of
daunting.
Case in point was Howard Cable's unforgiving arrangement
of the "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" from Handel's
oratorio, "Solomon." Most brass quintets would find
this resourceful and technically challenging version tough
to play halfway down the program, when they were fully warmed
up; the Canadian Brass tossed it off effortlessly as their
opening number.
That nimble playing style has long been the Canadian Brass'
hallmark, and it's still firmly in place despite lineup changes
in the last few years. Replacing trumpet stalwarts Frederick
Mills and Ronald Romm are Joe Burgstaller, who joined in 2001,
and Ryan Anthony, a Cleveland Institute of Music grad and
former Oberlin Conservatory teacher who signed on in 2000.
Also new is hornist Jeff Nelsen, in whose universe there is
no such thing as a cracked note.
That same lightness of touch results in some rhythmic fireworks
when the quintet crosses over into popular music. On this
program, they played an Ellington tribute and a suite from
Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," both exquisitely arranged
by the authoritative Luther Henderson, himself a former Ellington
arranger. The Gershwin suite was a showcase for the individual
members, with shining moments for hornist Nelsen ("Summertime")
and tubist Daellenbach, whose burly instrument waxed surprisingly
romantic in "Bess, You Is My Woman Now."
There were the expected encores, including a wacky hybrid
that spliced Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus with "When
the Saints Go Marching In." It was preceded by a shaggy-dog
tale about a command performance for the Queen of England
who, backstage, explained to the players the difference between
a command performance and a concert: "For a command performance,
you don't get paid," she said, to which they rejoined,
"God bless America!"
The group's last encore put the spotlight on trumpeter Anthony
who, as a returning homeboy, was given an enthusiastic round
of applause. Anthony played a high and bright bullfighting
pastiche, full of trills, runs, wild skirlings and ringing
declarations. His old CIM teacher, former Cleveland Orchestra
trumpeter David Zauder, was in the audience, along with many
of Anthony's North Coast music pals. They certainly must have
felt equal measures of pride and envy over his brilliant performance
and his good fortune in finding a home with the world's pre-eminent
brass players.
Mark Satola is a free-lance writer in Cleveland Heights.
FOR REFERENCE ONLY. NOT TO BE
REPUBLISHED.
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