You Should've Been There: Oregon Brass Quintet [Beall Hall, 4/24/2008]

The UO School of Music and Dance sponsors a boatload, and I do mean a ton, of events in the acoustically glorious Beall Hall. Many are student concerts; many are faculty recitals; some are from the faculty artist groups like the fabulous Trio Pacifica and the Oregon Brass Quintet, which I went to see last night.

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(By the way, despite the crazy construction zone that is the new School of Education and new School of Music building, I easily found a parking space in the parking lot up by Beall. But if you need handicapped parking, I am not sure where to go — the gravel road would be a bit much for crutches or anything but off-road tire-equipped wheelchairs.)

The picture's a bit false because George Recker, the trumpet dude in front, is now a retired prof at the UO, and his place in the quintet was taken by trumpet GTF Sarah Viens. Also, I do not know what's up with the crazy Photoshopping of the image, but whateves.

Trumpeter Brian McWhorter and horn player Lydia Van Dreel constitute some of what I'm calling the music school's Young Turks — sure, they might not be young as in "just out of school," but they're young as in, "The boomers are retiring, and these are the new, energetic hires." And of course Viens represents an even younger generation. More music school profs in the group include Jeffrey Williams on trombone and Michael Grose on tuba. (Those tubas are just so damn big. His biceps must be ripped.)

But on to the concert itself, about which I will have only a few words since I am not a classical music expert. The setlist:

1. As the Crow Flies by Douglas Detrick
OK, it's a bit disconcerting to realize that the person who wrote the award-winning opening piece is quite a bit younger than I am. He's a grad student at the UO, but McWhorter noted that he couldn't be there last night because he was off with the UO's jazz ensembles spreading UO music love somewhere.
Here is a video of a quintet playing "As the Crow Flies" in Romania (woot!). It's a bit jazzy for my taste, but go, Douglas Detrick; you're very cool, getting played all over the world and winning awards and stuff.

2.Laudes by Jan Bach
Four movements. Some of them loud. Let me say that I sat way too close to the front for the first half.

Beall has beautiful, gorgeous acoustics, better than any place else in town (and, classical music guru Brett Campbell told me the other day, better than any place in PDX either), but brass needs to meld a bit, and fourth or fifth row? Ouuuuuuch. Srsly ouch. How do the musicians stand it? Are they all deaf? They don't seem to be. (Despite the volume — and the musicians' skill — an elderly person to my left snored through the final movements. Sad.)

I did end up enjoying the second and fourth movements (I don't think I've ever disliked a scherzo [the second movement], and as a matter of fact, the second I started typing "scherzo," the second movement of Beethoven's 8th Symphony, Allegro scherzando, started staccato-ing its playful way through my head). But again, this piece was more modern and jazzy than I really like. I guess that means I need to listen to more jazz and get to like it better. Le sigh.

At intermission, I ran into bassoon prof Steve Vacchi, another in the Young Turk circle. (I may be constructing this out of whole cloth, and perhaps they don't see themselves that way at all, but I think the entire university system is going through this. At the Oregon Arts Commission conference the other day, Frances Bronet, dean of the UO's the triple-A school, talked about having 50-70 percent turnover of faculty in her school over the next few years.) Vacchi is always a smart, fun, musically brilliant person to talk to. So of course we discussed nothing music-related. Next time ...

After intermision, we settled out of jazz and into sounds that make my ears happier — also, I had moved to the back, where mellowing and melding did a lot for the sound and for my eardrums.

3. Edvard Grieg Suite, arr. Alan Civil
Perhaps I just like those strong, traditional narratives. Sue me. I especially found the fourth movement, "Wedding Day in Troldhaugen," charming. (I know, it's so boring of me.) Makes me think I should buy a ticket for tonight's Grieg concert at the Shedd. Hmmmm.

4. American Hymn by William Schuman
Dang that I didn't have a pen last night. I recall enjoying it, but that's as far as my brain goes. (And I can't find any examples on YouTube to help me out. Hunh.)

5. Concertino, Op. 94, by Dmitri Shostakovich
A guaranteed crowd-pleaser with a double quintet — four grad students and retired trumpet prof Recker joined in. The rousing last few minutes had the sparse audience (about 40 people) involved and excited; some even stood to applaud after the tour de force end.

My favorite things about this concert:
Watching the musicians get spit out of their instruments (McWhorter thoughtfully provides an absorbent little towel onto which he carefully drips the moisture between pieces.)
Hearing McWhorter and Viens (They're both quite good, and McWhorter really let Viens take some of the more visible parts.)
There was no Baroque music (I adore, delight in and worship the Baroque, but the poor brass players are always being stuck with it, and besides, there will be plenty this summer with the Bachfest).

It was great. I only wish more people would come to these things at Beall. I mean, I've only been to, I don't know, seven or eight, but almost all of them have been smart and wonderful and full of strong musicianship. Some of them aren't perfect, but they're inexpensive, and the community should go to more of them. And trust me, if you get there early enough, there's no problem with parking.