The words “brass quintet” don’t usually evoke excitement, but there was no other word for the anticipation zinging through the audience in Crowell Concert Hall last Friday. Some would say, however, that no other reception is appropriate for the American Brass Quintet, which has been called “positively breathtaking” by The New York Times and “the high priests of brass” by Newsweek.
Katrina Smith-Manschott ’08 was actually jumping up and down with excitement.
“I’ve heard of American Brass Quintet before,” she said. “We listened to recordings of their pieces in my band class in high school.”
When the Quintet first came into existence in 1960, brass-oriented chamber music was still unfamiliar to most concert audiences. Since then, the Quintet has recorded over fifty records and premiered over one hundred new brass pieces, and currently spends its time touring and teaching in-residence at the Julliard School. According to the program from Friday’s performance, “The presentation of American Brass Quintet editions of historical brass music, programmed alongside challenging contemporary music, has become a trademark” of the Quintet’s performances.
The Quintet performed four pieces and an encore that spanned genres and decades. The first portion of the program included the 16th-century penned “Three Madrigals” which reflected the “youthful vigor, variety, and grace” of Italian demi-religious music of the time, according to the program. Next came the more modern piece, the robust and almost silly “Quinteto Concertante”, written by friend-of-Quintet Osvaldo Lacerda. The piece included experiments in staccato, discordance and trombone slides. The last portion of the first part of the program was the strikingly experimental “The Three Tenses,” a piece by composer Huang Ruo based on the ideas of past, present, and future and what it means to throw these away. Ruo was inspired for the piece by the lack of tense in his native language, Chinese.
The Quintet reconvened after a short intermission to continue its journey across genres and time. A good chunk of time was devoted to Civil War-era music, specifically the music of the 26th N.C. Regimental Band, C.S. A. The Quintet’s versions of “Dixie,” the “Bettraite Polka, Rock Me To Sleep, Mother,” and “Here’s Your Mule” were alternately jovial and sensitive, bright and muted. The last suite, “Colchester Fantasy”, a mid-20th century ode to picturesque England, featured four parts, each named for and written in the style of a different pub in the town of Colchester. The Quintet took a bow before coming back for a well-received encore.
Although the majority of the audience was adults from the Middletown community, the students who were present seemed to enjoy the performance a great deal.
“I thought the performance was very good,” Smith-Manschott said. “ The performance went beyond my expectations. I was so touched by the beauty of the harmonies and the intertwining melodies in the first piece that I actually cried a little […] Their rendition of ”Dixie“ was the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.”
“I was really impressed,” said Sam Tilin ’09. “I liked how varied their repertoire was. I expected them to play only old classical stuff, and was really happy to hear the Civil War era music and the avant-garde pieces.”? The Quintet also held a Master Class the next day, which Tilin attended.
“They gave a really interesting workshop on how they work, and then some of us had a chance to play and be critiqued by the Quintet,” Tilin said. “It was a fantastic experience and they were really nice guys.”
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