Music Review : Bowl Strikes up the Bands of Period Brass and Winds

In 1921, the Greater Los Angeles Municipal Band gave a summer season of weekly concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Concert band performances there have been rare since, but the drought ended Sunday. The American Winds Concert Band, formed for the occasion, and the Americus Brass Band made their debuts on a genially didactic fireworks program.

The latter group presented its portion of the concert as a costumed Civil War pageant, effectively narrated by Mark Torreso. The marches, quicksteps and songs it played were short, characterful and often quite demanding in terms of individual technical finesse and ensemble cohesion. A blazing dash through the closing section of Rossini’s “William Tell’ Overture completed the taut first half.

Formed 23 years ago at Cal State Long Beach, Americus, which plays period instruments, has appeared in historical dramas on film and television. Its 13 members, conducted with brisk authority by Richard Birkemeier, handled their assignments with virtuoso flair, including a plangent “Amazing Grace” solo on baritone horn by Loren Marsteller.

The American Winds and conductor/narrator Larry Curtis brought this Concert Band 101 introduction into the 20th century. Three pieces by Percy Grainger and an evocative Duke Ellington medley set high marks for musical sophistication on a certainly unhackneyed agenda that touched, sometimes too generously, on various styles and genres.

Curtis, director of the Long Beach Municipal Band, put an emphasis on explosive energy, dramatic in pacing and accent. His new band played colorfully and solidly for the most part, and produced a strong assortment of solos. The evening’s titular soloist, however, was trumpeter Allen Vizzuti, screaming through the showpiece “Napoli” variations with extraordinary range and agility.

The two bands combined for a Civil War medley that reprised many of the tunes from the first half and introduced the fireworks. The pyrotechnics continued through Sousa’s “Washington Post” and “Stars and Stripes Forever,” but the musicians capped it alone with a stylishly swaggering Dixieland medley as an encore.