National Brass Ensemble at Davies

Last night the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) presented a concert by the National Brass Ensemble (NBE) in Davies Symphony Hall. This group consists of the finest brass players in major orchestras across the United States. In last night’s performance they were joined by two harpists, three percussionists, and one organist. Those resources were mustered for The Ring, an arrangement by Timothy Higgins (SFS Principal Trombone) that constitutes a synopsis of the four operas of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (the ring of the Nibelung). The score was structured in four movements, one for each of the operas.

Skeptics might compare this undertaking with the trick of getting a dog to walk on its hind legs. However, those familiar with Wagner’s version would probably acknowledge that Higgins had clearly familiarized himself with the underlying narrative, as well as the score that Wagner himself had written. Personally, I suspect that anyone that has become acquainted with Wagner’s version would not have faulted Higgins for the excerpts that he extracted and wove together to offer a musical account of the basic narrative that cuts across all four operas. Last night’s performance also benefited from the talents of a first-rate opera conductor. The entire evening was led by Eun Sun Kim, Music Director of the San Francisco Opera.

The first half of the program served up two world premieres. One of these, entitled simply “Brass Fantasy,” was composed by Arturo Sandoval, who was in the audience for the occasion. The music was relatively short but consistently engaging. Sandoval took his bow from his seat in the audience, allowing the performers to enjoy the center of attention.

The other world premiere was “DEIFIED,” composed by Jonathan Bingham. The music was basically a study of palindromes, the title being the first of them. The idea of forward-and-backward reflections was an appealing one, which Bingham explored at a variety of different levels. Nevertheless, the result came across as music that may have looked very good on paper but never quite registered with attentive listening. To be fair, however, listening to palindromes is not a particularly easy matter. There is even a mathematical argument, based on automata theory, that explains the difficulty; but that argument is beyond the scope of those interested only in listening to the music!

The program began with a stimulating account of the fanfare that Richard Strauss composed for the first benefit ball to be held by the Vienna Philharmonic in 1924. At the other end of the program, NBE turned to their only album released thus far, consisting entirely of music by Giovanni Gabrieli. They selected the final track of the album, the second composition entitled simply “Canzon per Sonar.” The next album will be forthcoming, since all of its content was being recorded last night in Davies.