Re: Re: Review of "Journey"


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Posted by Steve Marcus on December 20, 2003 at 20:35:58:

In Reply to: Re: Review of "Journey" posted by Sun-Times on December 20, 2003 at 20:18:50:

Thanks for the alert. Here's an excerpt from that review:


Tuba concerto, top conductor herald special season

December 20, 2003

BY WYNNE DELACOMA Classical Music Critic Advertisement

"Tubas at Christmastime usually herald Salvation Army collection buckets or a tubafest version of "Silent Night.''

"Symphony Center's mainstage was decked for the season Thursday night, and beneath the giant hanging wreaths the spotlight was on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's principal tubist, Gene Pokorny. Yet his solo vehicle, 'Journey,' a concerto for contrabass tuba and orchestra by Madison, Wis.-based composer and tuba player John Stevens, was more concerned with the timeless American landscape than yuletide cheer.

"The subscription concert -- conducted by David Robertson, recently appointed music director of the St. Louis Symphony -- did have a reach and depth appropriate to the season. Pokorny gave the world premiere of Stevens' well-crafted concerto in 2000, and it was good to see the CSO moving beyond the prevailing orchestra-world pattern of commissioning a new work, performing it once and consigning it permanently to the music library shelves.

"Robertson was clearly on top of his game Thursday night. Just before the Nielsen symphony, he spoke to the audience, welcoming 200 music teachers and band directors in town for an annual band clinic. Thanking them for their hard work, he noted that his high school music teacher was in the audience. It was a graceful acknowledgement of the men and women who do some of music education's heaviest lifting.

"You didn't have to be a tuba teacher to feel the satisfaction of talent fulfilled during Stevens' 'Journey,' an evocation of America's great trains with the soloist alternating between chief engineer and awestruck passenger. The contrabass is among the lowest of the low in terms of orchestral register, yet in Pokorny's hands it sounded as agile and focused as a flute or violin. With impeccable breath control, he brought personality to the contrabass, allowing it to turn frisky in the first movement while morphing into a snarling competitor during the blistering final movement, 'Highballing Through Town.' The three-movement concerto was easy on the ear, painting its images of cross-country travel with shimmering violins, puffing woodwinds and an occasional serene melody."




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