Program: KERRY TURNER: Bronze Triptych; JAMES BECKEL JR.: Portraits of the American West; JOHN WILLIAMS/ANTHONY DI LORENZO: Hooked on Williams; BARBER: Adagio; THAD JONES: A Child is Born; BRAHAM/FURBER: Limehouse Blues; TOMMY WOLF: Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most; STERLING PROCTER: Amazing Grace
What a kick! Yawl can enjoy this delightful disc even if you’re one ‘o them Yankee folk. Its producer, Gregory Hustis, was turned on to the sound of multiple horns when as a student he heard the Los Angeles Horn Club – virtuoso horn players performing original works and arrangements written for horns. For this disc he brought together a dozen members of the horn sections of both the Dallas and Houston Symphonies, four percussionists and a bass player, plus a variety of great original compositions and arrangements for the ensemble.
I’ve been a fan of multiple instrument aggregations for a long time and multiple French horns – if they’re all in tune as perfectly as these players are – make a wonderful sound. The opening work achieves a quite symphonic sound during its quarter hour length. Its three movements depict three bronze statues of cowboys and horses. The Portraits of the American West are also a threesome: Santa Fe Trail, Prairie Sunrise, and Colorado Vistas. There have been a number of arrangements of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, but it is completely transformed on a dozen horns. I thought A Child is Born was on my list of don’t-care-to-hear-again tunes, but Dick Meyer’s beautiful arrangement caught my ears. The closing Amazing Grace is a powerful take on the familiar hymn tune, stressing its pentatonic scale possibilities which take it into the realm of world music. Sonics are fine, but I admit to wishing the dozen horns were encircling me a la Tacet’s surround SACD approach.
– John Sunier
