Music Review : California Wind Orchestra Pleads Case but Lacks Proof

David Warble is seeking to lift American bands out of the bleachers and into the concert hall. On Sunday, his California Wind Orchestra became the first symphonic band to appear on a regular concert series presented by the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

Nevertheless, new ground was hardly trod at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. In a program that sought to impart serious validation for this complement of instruments, one would expect innovative programming, an encapsulation of sonic possibilities unique to the ensemble, a summary of its stylistic spectrum. Instead, Warble presided over pieces that could have found approval among picnickers at any pops concert.

Only one composition--Edward Gregson’s “Celebration”--offered interest beyond the theatrical familiarity of “Fanfare and Theme for the XXIII Olympiad,” by John Williams, or the lightweight amiability of Percy Grainger’s once fresh-sounding wind arrangements.

But the work falls very short of sharpening the image of the concert band, because Gregson did not write it for a large ensemble--he designed all of its technical demands and all of its exploration of sectional timbre for the wind players of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Forces were appropriately pared for an effective reading.

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Though Warble missed his larger goal of promoting symphonic bands, he did lead his musicians in muscular and polished performances through a program that boldly went where many have gone before.

With canny salesmanship, he and Lawrence Duckles extracted lines from J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy to add to Dutch composer Johan de Meij’s Symphony No. 1, “The Lord of the Rings.” Then he enlisted the considerable narrative prowess of George Takei, a.k.a. Mr. Sulu of the original “Star Trek,” to bring in the crowds.

The score is dramatic and ambitious for the genre, with shades of Benjamin Britten here and Hollywood there, and with much that would have stimulated youthful imaginations if not for the unfortunate obstruction of copious text and silly lighting changes.