Young Musicians Spice Up Concert With Variety

The versatility of the young players in the Mancini Institute Orchestra was on full display Saturday night at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The 80 instrumentalists, working together as a unit for less than a month, nonetheless performed admirably in a collection of music ranging from Walter Piston’s “Toccata” to a suite of music from Jerry Bock’s “Fiddler on the Roof.”

In large measure, this capacity to handle a far-reaching collection of music is one of the goals of the institute’s monthlong program of seminars, master classes and performances. But the effectiveness with which the players--most of whom are in their 20s--move from style to style must be surprising to the institute’s program directors. And the versatility may reflect a generational shift, one suggesting the arrival of classically well-schooled players who have simultaneously had far more exposure to other musical forms than was common to young orchestral musicians of previous generations.

This omnivorous musical receptivity was also apparent in “Blue Form,” a work by Canadian student composer Jeffrey Toyne. The piece smoothly layered some unusually colorful orchestral textures with jazz soloing by trumpeter James Ford III (from Georgia) and saxophonist Luke Batson (from Tennessee). Its integration of these elements contrasted with two other works on the program: “Virtual Firestorm,” a work by composer-in-residence Jim McNeely featuring guest trumpeter Randy Brecker, and “LA Marathon,” by Ian Freebairn-Smith. While McNeely and Freebairn-Smith’s command of orchestral timbres was generally superb, their jazz elements--despite often hard-swinging qualities--tended to exist side by side with the more classical segments, rather than as integral aspects of the overall piece. Their approaches were typical of the Third Stream music of the late ‘50s and ‘60s, while Toyne’s effort seemed to reflect the more musically integrative qualities of the ‘90s.

Given the thematic versatility of the evening, the presence of the Turtle Island String Quartet was especially appropriate. Its colorful romp through the Bock piece--with the orchestra--was countered by the quartet’s rendering of a Michael Brecker tune that provided the opportunity for its members to display improvisational skills thoroughly matching their splendid ensemble playing.