Brass Concertos
Brad Warnaar (b. 1950)
Cornet Concerto (2017-19)
Chick Corea (1941-2021)
Trombone Concerto (2020, orch. by John Dickson)
Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)
Low Brass Concerto (2017) José Sibaja (cornet), Joseph Alessi (solo trombone), Paul Jenkins, Derek W. Hawkes (trombone), Steven Brown (bass trombone), Gilbert Long (tuba)
Nashville Symphony/Giancarlo Guerrero
rec. 2020-23, Nashville, USA
First recordings: Warnaar, Higdon
Naxos 8.559895  [60]

The Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero have been a mainstay of Naxos’ American Classics series. They have brought to a wider public much contemporary music, from well-known figures such as John Adams and Michael Daugherty to ones that are not so much in the spotlight such as Ben Folds and Johnathan Leshnoff. This album brings together the well-known Jennifer Higdon with a name new to me, Brad Warnaar, alongside the late Chick Corea in a less familiar role as classical composer. Sir Malcolm Arnold wrote all of his solo concertos as portraits of friends and all three works here, as the excellent and entertaining liner notes by Thomas May tell us, were written with particular performers, their skills and personalities in mind.

Brad Warnaar has had a distinguished career as a French horn player and as an orchestrator for TV and for major Hollywood blockbusters, but this is the first work of his as a composer I have heard, and he certainly knows what he is doing.

I was quite thrown at the start of the Cornet Concerto as the composer sets up expectations but then does not follow them through and goes in another direction. The title And you are…  gives a clue. The cornet is a vulgar intruder from 19th-century band music into the polite orchestra and their upset is palpable. What does John Philip Sousa and his principal cornet Herbert L Clarke think they are doing in an orchestra? It is a conceit that works extremely well and in the manner of, say, Ives and Bolcom, the composer draws on popular American themes and explores the material in unorthodox juxtapositions. In the Jubilee Waltz and Bailey’s Galop the orchestra gives in and lets the soloist have his way, joining in his high jinks, if only briefly. These first three sections could have sounded very fragmented, but such is the composer’s skill in pace and timing that they flow seamlessly and thrillingly together. The proportions of each mean that none overstays its welcome. Guerrero and his orchestra are more than a match for the gear changes.

As is often with seemingly ‘fun’ music, the heart of the concerto is the fourth section called Bill Moore. This is a heartfelt elegy in memory of a high school friend and cornet player who had recently died. José Sibaja gets to show off his wonderfully rich tone in the long melodic lines which are accompanied by some exquisite orchestral writing with judicious use of the percussion. It is a really beautiful moment of calm in all the surrounding brilliance.

This brilliance returns in the finale called Ta-ca Ta-ca Toccata. Apparently, Jeff Bailey, who originally suggested the concerto, pointed out that he was very good at double tonguing and ta-ca ta-ca are the syllables used to practice the quick-fire technique. So if the cornet is liquid in Bill More it is brilliant and fast in this movement. It is more or less straitlaced except that the material does bear some similarity to Haydn’s famous Trumpet Concerto and the soloist does tries to switch to that work on occasion. I cannot think of any other concertos for cornet and orchestra, most are for cornet and band. But the slightly brighter sound of the cornet over the trumpet works very well in this orchestral context. Warnaar has given players a stunning work to perform and listeners a fun experience.

The Trombone Concerto by Chick Corea was his last work before his death in 2021. It was orchestrated by his friend and colleague John Dickson, who really has done a superb job. Corea was well known for his wide-ranging musical interests, and repertoire and this concerto is wide ranging in its styles. It was written for Joe Alessi, one of the finest of contemporary trombonists, who seems to embody the smooth tone of Don Lusher with the virtuosity of Christian Lindberg. He needs both in this challenging work.

It opens with an extended trombone solo which although notated allows the soloist to “improvise whenever.” Alessi’s liquid tone is extraordinary here, as his perfectly in tune sung chord at 30”. The orchestra enters at 1’ 50” with some shimmering sounds from tuned percussion with the magical tongue drum prominent. This jazzy introduction leads via a Coreaesque piano solo to the second movement, A Stroll, inspired by Corea’s memories of living in Manhattan and the sights seen on a walk from north to south. Funky in parts and film noirish in others the movement is a wonderful city portrait that gives all the orchestra space to shine. Such is the quality of Dickinson’s orchestration that not a note is lost. Copland at his best comes to mind.

The third movement, Hysteria, was Corea’s response to composing during the Covid pandemic. It is not particularly hysterical but rather is built around tight rhythmic cells that call for some spot-on tonguing from the soloist. Halfway through a sexy ostinato pattern in piano, harp and percussion support the trombone in high lyrical solo.

The finale Joe’s Tango is quintessential Corea, a Latin American dance with exquisite jazz harmonies. Corea originally wanted the work to end quietly but Alessi asked him if he could have something more virtuosic. Corea duly obliged with a quickfire coda taking the trombone up to repeated top F-sharps in the final measure. The motto is ’be careful what you wish for’, though of course high F Sharps are nothing to a player of Alessi’s skill.

Soloist and conductor here gave the premiere of the work in Sao Paulo in 2021, and they make it sound easy, which it is not. Guerrero keeps a tight rein on the orchestral challenges while still enabling the sound to feel free. Alessi has performed it widely, including in the version with wind band, and the subtlety he brings to each performance is astounding. This is probably the benchmark for future interpretations. 

I am a huge fan of Jennifer Higdon’s music. It is very much cut from the same cloth as the mid twentieth century American symphonists such as Copland, Harris and Diamond et al which is surprising since her graduate studies were with the avant-garde composer George Crumb. She gets better reviews in the USA than the UK where some critics such as Andrew Clements and Tom Service have written highly critical reviews of her instantly communicative and beautifully written music. I can only imagine they would dislike this Concerto for Low Brass as there is nothing to scare away an audience who has come to a concert to be, shock-horror, entertained.

It is an engaging work that does what it says, that is a concerto for three trombones and tuba, the low brass of a standard symphony orchestra. As in the orchestra, the four often play as a quartet but interspersed with solo and duet  passages. There is much rich chorale type writing, indeed the work sounds like and extended Bach-inspired chorale. The soloists here clearly know each other well and produce a wonderfully rich tone in the opening section. In section two, the players separate off into different groupings and the feeling is altogether spikier though no less together. Alternating slow and fast sections give the movement its linked structure and before you know it the fifteen minutes are over. The four soloists are all superb, clearly relishing the chance to shine outside their usual supporting role. Their colleagues provide excellently coloured support.

This is a very rewarding disc with three concertos all of which bear repeated listening. The Warnaar is for me a real find and I shall certainly be looking out for more works by this highly skilled artist. The Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero have become a top-notch orchestra who have done more than most to encourage new music. For that they deserve the highest praise.

Paul RW Jackson 

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