Music Reviews : Chicago Brass at Ambassador

In this day of such crossover successes as the Canadian Brass and Empire Brass, the Chicago Brass Ensemble is something of an anomaly. The players don’t tell jokes between pieces or dance around during them; they don’t play jazz, or show tunes or greatest hits medleys.

The ensemble’s concert Sunday at Ambassador Auditorium relied upon staples of the brass quintet repertory, and remained, from start to finish, uncompromisingly serious. Even in encore the quintet--Chicago Symphony members George Vosburgh (trumpet), Gail Williams (horn), Charles Vernon (trombone), with Neal Berntsen (trumpet) and Rex Martin (tuba)--chose neither Joplin rag nor Mozart disco arrangement, but a Baroque selection by Samuel Scheidt.

Given the ensemble’s level of performance, it turned out to be a welcome departure.

The high point of the evening came with the group’s performance of Malcolm Arnold’s Quintet, Opus 73. The players’ easy virtuosity allowed the quick, off-beat imitative passages to retain a fluid, rhythmic drive. They whirred effortlessly in the double-tongued accompaniments. They guided the central, Shostakovichian movement to a symphonically dramatic climax.

Viktor Ewald’s Quintet, Opus 5, proved more low-key in the Chicagoans’ reading, with Berntsen and Vosburgh switching to softer-edged cornets and everyone contributing rich, rounded, singing melody. Lutoslawski’s Mini Overture--a three-minute wild ride of propulsive rhythms and aggressive imitation--revealed the musicians in blazing, energetic precision.

The resonant acoustic muddied the lines of selections from Bach’s “Art of the Fugue,” in mostly flowing, but sometimes strident, readings. The group gave a wonderfully straight-faced account of four Ives pieces, including a rambunctiously polytonal “London Bridge Is Falling Down!” from the composer’s 17th year.

A poised, jolly reading of music arranged from William Boyce’s symphonies and a lyrical account of Scheidt’s “Canzona Bergamasca” rounded out the concert.