MUSIC REVIEW : Symphony’s Brass Section Falls a Bit Short of Expectations

Among the hopeful portents evidenced during the San Diego Symphony’s fall season is the new-found strength of its brass section. With the addition of several key players, this section has displayed a sonic brilliance and level of dependability that will help the orchestra become a first-rate ensemble.

Monday night, the symphony’s entire brass team, 12 players from high trumpet to bass tuba, gave a Christmas concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral. Aside from the printed program’s logo, a French horn festooned with holly, the only seasonal aspect of the concert was the final piece, Sam Nestico’s jazzy arrangement of traditional Christmas carols. The remainder were traditional Baroque brass standards and some transcriptions from orchestral repertory.

While the level of playing Monday night affirmed the promise of this group, it was not sufficiently polished or cohesive enough to warrant unmitigated praise. Under the baton of Ethan Dulsky, a member of the symphony horn section who conducted the Pacific Chamber Ensemble for several seasons, the group attained some majestic moments. The lasting impression, however, was that of an under-rehearsed performance, filled with lazy, imprecise rhythms and an irritating tendency for the lower voices to lag behind the beat.

Dulsky’s conducting has always been laudably understated, but on this occasion it was also monochromatic. While he did not neglect dynamic contrasts, the movements of Edvard Grieg’s “Holberg Suite” were as metrically square as the Gabrieli sonata and canzona. The brass played only the first three of the five movements from the “Holberg Suite,” hastily inserting a less demanding march and gavotte by Henry Purcell.

Accompanied by organist Nelson Huber, John Lorge and Heather Buchman attempted Michael Haydn’s Double Concerto for Horn and Alto Trombone. This novel piece did little to raise the musical stock of Franz Joseph Haydn’s younger brother, although the soloists’ duo cadenzas rose above the concerto’s uneventful contrivances. Since Huber’s choice of organ stops unfortunately kept the mass of sound in the same range as the soloists’ parts, the mellow timbres of the horn and alto trombone were masked by an abundance of opaque organ sound.

Second trumpeter John Wilds’ arrangements of the “Simple Gifts” variations from Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” and a single movement from William Walton’s “Henry V Suite” were highly idiomatic and a welcome stylistic addition to typical brass programming. The Walton sounded like an elaborate extended fanfare and was given a secure, lively reading. More of the evening should have reached its level of proficiency.