Leonin: Viderund omnes
Hovhaness: Fantasy No. 1 (1967)
Flothius: Sonatine (1946)
Hidas: Triga (1992)
Bassett: Trio for Brass Instruments (1953)
Needham: Mobiles (2013)
Frackenphol: Brass Trio (1966)
Jack Sutte; trumpet, Jesse McCormick, french horn; Rick Stout, trombone, with poetry readings by Kathleen Cerveny. At the home of Mark and Sue Hollingsworth, Shaker Heights
If The Cleveland Orchestra is the five-star fine dining of Classical music in Cleveland, Heights Arts is the gourmet food truck -- serving up delicacies for smaller audiences in slightly less predictable and more nomadic fashion. Indeed, aside from the fantastic music performed by amazing musicians, I like the experience if seeing inside some of the beautiful and unique homes on the East side -- and today's concert in the beautiful Hollingsworth residence was no exception.
What was unusual were the instruments -- a trio of brass players taking the name "Factory Seconds" in homage to their roles as the second for their instruments in The Cleveland Orchestra. I was a little nervous going in to today's program that brass, let alone a trio of brass, would overwhelm the small spaces and intimate audiences of the typical Heights Arts concert. That fear was misplaced.
I found that I enjoyed the first half of the program slightly more than the second half with Bardin's Sonatine en Trio, the opening piece on the program, setting an excellent mood with the spirited but playful marchesque first movement, the subdued evening walk of a second movement and the lively third movement.
The second an third pieces on the program were offered as a sandwich with a piece of poetry in the middle -- while I enjoyed Viderunt Omnes, said to be the beginning of Western music, I think I spent too much mentally time trying to connect Fantasy No. 1 to that piece and the poetry to enjoy it musically.
Flothius's Sonatine's four movements blended into a single fluid work and right around the time I had decided I was enjoying the quick pace of the first movement (which at the beginning I related to a festive almost circus-like feeling) I realized the piece had ended. Finishing out the first half of the program, Hidas' Triga offered a slightly more burnished fanfare.
The program following intermission, though notable for featuring all living American composers didn't capture my interest in the same way or to the same degree -- I had a hard time formulating a reaction to Bassett's Trio for Brass Instruments. Needham's Mobiles Started out with a subdued, dreamy nighttime walk on a quiet alley, met and crossed a busy thoroughfare, before returning to the shadows.
Lincoln
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