Burning River Brass & Organ @ Severance Hall 12/21/09

Each year, the Burning River Brass and Todd Wilson come up with a different approach to what is my favorite holiday concert of them all. This time, it was festive and majestic—either or both—from beginning to end. All organ and brass this time, too, no vocals, other than those provided by the large and willing audience! More on that later.

O Come, All Ye Faithful is the very personification of festive and majestic, especially in this lively arrangement by Roger Harvey. Organ and brass served notice admirably with this piece, advising us of what was to come. Nothing namby-pamby about this batch of excellent musicians. No way.

Frequently, small suites are comprised of sometimes-related, but not always, pieces of music that just seem like natural partners. Three pieces of Festive Music of J. S. Bach provided an organ piece—Allegro from Concerto in C major—then one for brass—Largo from Concerto in D major (originally for two violins, but redone here by Feza Zweifel, one of the founders of BRB)—and the finale, for everyone, was the Bourée from the Orchestral Suite No. 1.

Carols for the Queen consisted of I Saw Three Ships, A Sussex Mummer’s Christmas Carol and Past Three O’Clock. The first and last are traditional pieces, arranged for brass by Roger Harvey while the middle one written by Percy Grainger was arranged by Michael Allen.

It follows that an organist should excel at arranging music for his instrument, and so it is with the Chorale-Improvisation on In dulci jubilo. Sigfrid Karg-Elert was a famous organist in the early part of the twentieth century, who arranged the famous carol as a showpiece for organ. The music not only shows off the entire range of the organ—from very soft and gentle through the deepest and loudest notes capable of being performed on a big organ. Mr. Wilson is more than capable of presenting this music in a fabulous performance.

The Brass did a gorgeous rendition of the American carol, I Wonder as I Wander (another arrangement by Mr. Harvey) and then gave us a great variety piece: Prelude and Fugue for Christmas, arranged by British trombonist Simon Wills. All told there are eight familiar carols in pairs here. It’s much easier—and more enjoyable to just listen and enjoy instead of counting, however, so I’m not sure I could list all eight. Probably better not to try.

Season’s Greetings is a more modern take on making a suite of familiar songs. Arranger Dean Sorenson uses jazz and blues, plus Mr. Zweifel on the drumset in his melding of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Oh, Tannenbaum, Let it Snow, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. (There may have been others – see above paragraph in case I’ve missed any.) The really nice thing about brass ensembles is that each instrument (and frequently each player) gets a chance to shine – to demonstrate his or her own versatility and capability. There is no hiding in these pieces. Tuba player Matthew Gaunt had what can only be called a major workout in this one.

Is it possible to have a Christmas concert with excerpts from The Nutcracker Ballet by Piotr Tchaikovsky? Frankly, I doubt it, and I wouldn’t really care to try it, either. Visual images spring up with almost every note played, almost like a suite of musical paintings. As arranged by Michael Allen, March Miniature envisions squadrons of toy soldiers going into battle against the Mouse King, while the Trépak was everything a Russian dance should be. Between these two pieces was the enchanting Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy nimbly played on the organ by Mr. Wilson, in an arrangement by Edwin Arthur Kraft.

Then, in a tour-de-force we’ve not heard here previously, Mr. Wilson presented a different version of Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson. Usually we hear the instrumental version made famous by the Boston Pops but this time, it was another smashing arrangement by an organist (Thomas Trotter) for his instrument. Although it was a truly swinging arrangement, it was necessary to bring out the trumpets for the horsey sound effects.

Lighting for these concerts is always spectacular, but for the above piece, it was greatly like watching through a bottle of Chartreuse. Amazing. In other works, the walls were gold or silver, red or shocking pink, or maybe a gorgeous shade of blue—or even green holly leaves scattered about. I’ve never quite ascertained who is responsible for the festive lighting, but it’s always gorgeous. And also, on occasion, there are strings of white mini-lights that descend from the ceiling creating a fairyland effect. Kudos to whoever.

Back to the music. An up-tempo Jingle Bells (arr. by Mr. Sorenson), The Christmas Song (arranged by Christopher Mowat) and which featured a gorgeous jazzy trumpet solo by Heather Zweifel (the other founder of BRB) and a neat trombone solo (I don’t know which musician it was, for which I apologize) and the spectacular Little Drummer Boy (arranged by Clevelander Paul Ferguson) in which Feza Zweifel takes over the spotlight by sheer audacity and great musicianship. Imagine the Pink Panther meets Wipe-Out, and you’ll have the idea, although the joyous combination of trombones and wood-block isn’t heard everyday, either.

The program ended, as usual, with audience participation. Mr. Wilson combined his arranging skills with those of Mr. Wills for a stunning version of Silent Night, which involved everyone in the house.

The grand finale was Joy to the World, in a terrific arrangement by the American composer/arranger and brass specialist, Anthony DiLorenzo, whose work is somewhat familiar-sounding because of his many film scores. Again, every person present (except sleeping children) participated.

But, of course, that wasn’t quite the end. That honor devolved on another DeLorenzo arrangement – Good King Wenceslas. And a grand time was had by all.

For more information about the Burning River Brass, go to: http://www.burningriverbrass.com. For Cleveland Orchestra tickets or information, go to: http://www.clevelandorchestra.com or call 216.231.1111.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz, who writes: My most recently published book is Ardenwycke Unveiled (e-book and trade paper). Cerridwen has another contemporary romance from me, But Not For Love, currently available only as an e-book, but perhaps will be in print next year. I hope to soon get around to completing some of the 30+ incomplete books in my computer!

By the way, Cerridwen has also accepted two of my short stories in their Scintillating Samples (complimentary reads) area: Song of the Swan and Unexpected Comfort. I love photography as well, as you can see here. Occasionally I teach writing workshops and sometimes do editing or ghostwriting on a free-lance basis. But over and above everything else, there's always been the writing. I can't imagine my life without it.