Kenneth Herman

San Diego Arts

Westwind Brass Plays at St. Paul's Cathedral

Around the World But Never Far from Home
By Kenneth Herman
Posted on May 03 2008
Last updated May 04 2008

Touring ensembles such as the Canadian Brass and the Empire Brass have given the brass quintet a certain cachet with their combination of knock-out technique and playful showmanship, and given the paucity of first-rate repertory for this medium, it's a wise formula. Westwind Brass, San Diego's own answer to this modestly popular musical franchise, offers admirable musicianship in a more earnest package.

Friday (May 2) at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, Westwind courageously pushed the expected boundaries of chamber brass repertory into the arena of world music, focusing on music with roots outside of the U.S.A. and western Europe. The strength of their program was a generous sampling of atypical music for brass: none of the standard Baroque dance suites, Scott Joplin rags and Sousa marches. The weakness was the tendency of the medium to homogenize even the most disparate musics into that muscular, slightly orotund sonority that a consort of five modern brass instruments produces. It took a great deal of imagination to distinguish elaborations on a Tunisian street song from parallel treatments of songs from Transylvania or the Greek Islands.

There were some pleasant surprises, beginning with the fanfare-like "Seikilos Song" by Brent Dutton, the ensemble's Artistic Director, tubist, and resident composer-arranger. Based on an ancient Greek song, its long, modal themes comfortably resounded through the cathedral, especially as first trumpet John Wilds began the solo theme from the rear, processed through the nave and joined second trumpet Andrew Elstob positioned in front of the other ensemble members. Their antiphonal voices energized the overall sonority in a most effective fashion. Merle Hogg, another local composer, contributed several Turkish and Greek dances from his Brass Quintet No. 1 whose rakish polyrhythms and spikey harmonies rose above the mundane. Transylvanian George B. Vetessy's attractive, neo-classical Partita hearkened more the conservatory classroom than the village square, but I liked his Chorale movement, a solemn first cousin to the brass chorale in Bela Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra."

A Suite "Fan Shen Dao Quing" by the contemporary Chinese composer Ye Zheng Kai sported intricate tonal counterpoint, with none of the expected pentatonic features that we associate with this tradition. Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian's set of "Armenian Scenes" sounded less exotic than almost any piece by the American composer Alan Hovhaness, who only discovered his Armenian roots in mid-career. But the imitation of pealing bells by the high brass in Arutiunian's "Wedding Procession" was a clever effect well worth the price of admission.

Songs and dances by the Brazilian Jose Uriscino da Silva "Duda" undulated with sensuous bossa nova rhythms and gave the trumpets ample opportunity to soar into the stratosphere. This suite and several African pieces would have benefitted from appropriate drumming and percussion, which will be part of the performances on May 4 & 5, when the San Diego State University African Drumming and Dance Ensemble joins this program. (The May 4 concert is at La Mesa First United Methodist Church, and the May 5 concert is at La Jolla's Neurosciences Institute.)

Although Westwind brought its customary, well-tuned precision and passion to their St. Paul's program, a couple of numbers did not get off the ground. Dutton's arrangement of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic "Desafinado" did not clearly separate the lively theme from the accompanimental figuration, which turned the piece into a fuzzy blur. And Walter Barnes' setting of the traditional Japanese cherry blossom song "Sakura" sounded downright ominous instead of graceful.

Other members of Westwind at St. Paul's included French Horn regular Barry Toombs and trombone David Pollack, who did an excellent job pinch-hitting at the last minute for trombone regular Toby Oft. Shortly after the program's second half commenced, Oft entered the cathedral with trombone and suitcase in hand. Dutton explained that he had just come from the airport, since he had been auditioning with the Boston Symphony for their vacant first-chair trombone position. The good news for Oft is that like Big Brown, he came in first. The bad news for the local music scene is his loss to the San Diego Symphony.

About the author: Kenneth Herman began his writing career as a music critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune and covered classical music for the San Diego Edition of the Los Angeles Times (1982-1992). He wrote "A History of the Spreckels Organ." and is currently Music Director/Organist for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego and conducts the 60-voice San Diego Youth Choir.
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