Pomp and Pipes
"Powerful" music for organ, winds, brass, and percussion
Frederick Fennell/Dallas Wind Symphony/Paul Riedo, organ
Reference Recordings RR-58CD

Karg-Elert: Praise the Lord with drums and cymbals
Reed: Allelujah! Laudamus Te
Gigout: Grand Chorus in Dialogue
Will: The Vikings, from Fenland Suite
Grainger: The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart
Dupre: Heroic Poem
Nelson: Pebble Beach Sojourn
Widor: Lord, Save Thy People
Weinberger: Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper

Summary from the busy non-executive: sound before the symbol, (though
the symbols are in very good hands).

If you're like me and thrill to the Gabriellian sounds of organ, brass,
and percussion...for about 5 minutes--then not to worry here.  (OK, I
haven't heard Horenstein do Gabrielli yet). Pomp and Pipes offers up
program  with enough inspired invention, eccentricity, color, and (of
course) jaw-dropping sound to have kept this listener in his seat through
two back to back sessions.

Some highlights from the CD:

If you got lucky in band camp, that probably meant your audition went
so well that you got into "A" Band, which meant you got to play an Alfred
Reed piece.  A little bit Elgar, a little bit Copland, Reed knows what
he's doing and the pieces of his that I've played have always been
inspired and well-proportioned.  His "Allelujah, Laudamus Te" opens
dramatically and then moves forward with loosely-polyphonic ideas presented
over luminous chords for horns, winds, and lower brass.  The organ is
saved for the finale to great effect, with pedal underpinning brass
fanfares.

Arthur Will's "The Vikings" from "Fenland Suite" is a celebration
of sound.  Gargantuan block chords for organ and brass lumber along,
periodically interrupted by a chattering motif, before both thematic
ideas are combined for a smashing ending.  It's a polyphonically-spare
piece but in a potent, elemental way (though much more tonally grounded
than Messian); the listener really gets to savor the raw, elemental
sounds of organ, organ pedal, snarling brass, and gong. There is even
a cameo appearance of Wagner's Fate motif from the Ring.

Grainger, in his piece, "The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart,"
writes for organ, percussion, bells, and wind-ensemble as you would
expect: as if there were no precedent.  What a masterful, if
unconventional orchestrator.  If you liked the hallucinogenic,
I-left-the-vibraphone-in-the-sun-too-long sound of his "Pastorale," from
"In a Nutshell," oh, you'll like this one.  A droopy, sighing theme
noodles around before morphing into brighter, declamatory statements for
brass with just a whiff of religious connotation.  The whole piece is
eerily effective.

Ron Nelson's "Pebble Beach Sojourn" is a brightly-colored,
rhythmically-charged scherzo, more William Schuman than, say, Michael
Dougherty.  Florid keyboard activity is limned with lots of tinkling
bells and mallet percussion, punctuated with explosive snare drum and
tympani interjections; and everything is propelled along with a Rossini-like
vigor.  The exhilarating close is right up there in the Top 20 exhilarating
closes of all time; I kid you not.

The program ends with Weinberger's "Polka and Fugue" from "Schwanda the
Bagpiper."  (arr. By GC Bainum for winds, though Weinberger specifically
calls for an organ in the finale in any case).  If you know the piece,
what can I say?  The polka, now running through my head, is impeding my
ability to continue to write brilliantly.

Seriously, the playing is first-rate, the sound is (truly) an audiophile's
dream, being grand YET airy; the selections are arranged to avoid listener
fatigue, and the music is never less than inspiring.  Have at it.

John Smyth
Sacramento, CA