SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW

“Music Masters of Wales” - Works by Karl Jenkins and Arwel Hughes: David Childs (euphonium), Karl Jenkins (conductor), Susan Holsonbake (soprano), Timothy Birt (tenor), Mark Womack (baritone), Pennsbury High School Concert Choir, The Pennsbury Community Chorus, Jonathan Griffith (conductor), Orchestra of Distinguished Concerts International New York, Carnegie Hall, New York City, 6.3.2010 (BH)

 

Karl Jenkins: Palladio, “Allegretto” (1996)

Karl Jenkins: “Ave Verum” from Stabat Mater (2008)

Karl Jenkins: “Benedictus” from The Armed Man (1999)

Karl Jenkins: Euphonium Concerto (2009, United States premiere)

Arwel Hughes: Dewi Sant (1950, New York premiere)

 

I would bet money that at least half of the audience at Carnegie Hall on this occasion had never even heard of a euphonium—and therefore had no idea what to expect during the United States premiere of Karl Jenkins’s Euphonium Concerto. Somewhat similar to the American baritone (i.e., the brass instrument) used in marching bands, the euphonium has a conical bore (the chamber inside through which air passes) rather than a cylindrical one, and a slightly more mellow sound. Perhaps most anticipated was the young soloist, David Childs, who commissioned the piece and on this occasion, ultimately fulfilled a lifelong dream to play at Carnegie Hall. He did not disappoint. Jenkins has fashioned him a crowd-pleaser that also shows off Childs’s considerable technique. Euphonium concertos are not exactly littering the floor, and I don’t recall ever hearing a soloist on this instrument—certainly not one with this accuracy and confidence.

 

The first of the four sections, “The Juggler,” feels like a perpetual-motion tarantella, with a prominent part for the xylophone. A “Romanza” follows, which exploited Childs’s glowing tone, followed by “It Takes Two…” (i.e., “To Tango”), in which a trumpet leads the ensemble in a bit of dance-band glamour. At the end of this section came one of the most striking effects in the entire piece: Childs sang and played the instrument simultaneously, resulting in some honking, growling notes. The final “A Troika? Tidy!” is a romp that made me imagine a James Bond car chase through the streets of Moscow. Throughout the work’s 24 minutes, I kept wishing the piece had taken even more advantage of Childs’s talents, but there were still tricky passages that gave him ample opportunities to show his mettle.

 

The program opened with the “Allegretto” from Jenkins’s popular Palladio, a neo-Baroque concerto for string orchestra, in an energetic performance, and two choral selections from the composer’s Stabat Mater and The Armed Man. The choral works were ardently delivered by the Pennsbury (Pennsylvania) High School Concert Choir.

 

After intermission came the New York premiere of Arwel Hughes’s Dewi Sant, an oratorio commissioned for the Festival of Britain in 1951. Hughes, who lived from 1909 to 1988, studied with Vaughan Williams, and absorbed some of his mentor’s harmonic leanings in this substantial work, almost 70 minutes long. Aneurin Talfan Davies wrote the devotional texts praising the patron saint of Wales, and the composer accompanies these with vast swaths of rich harmony. Conductor Jonathan Griffith obviously believes in the piece, and assembled a large orchestra with some 150 choristers to make the case for it. Three excellent soloists—Susan Holsonbake (soprano), Timothy Birt (tenor) and Mark Womack (baritone)—offered precise, lyrical lines to offset the voluptuous texture of the choir. However, even Dr. Griffith and the forces onstage couldn’t quite dispel the feeling that the piece is a little “too much of a good thing.” The constant ebb and flow Hughes designed eventually becomes a bit wearing over the long haul. Still, it was valuable as a glimpse into a composer rarely encountered in the United States.

 

Bruce Hodges