Naxos' Wind Band Classics series has exposed some of the top-notch music-making being achieved by American ensembles in this rather undervalued medium, and this disc, by the
Lone Star Wind Orchestra of the University of North Texas (the primary conservatory location in the giant Texas university system), makes a good sample purchase for the series. The technical proficiency of the band is startling, as can be heard from the beginning in their flawless rendition of
John Williams' ornate arrangement of the "Star-Spangled Banner." The program is likewise accomplished in its thinking. The idea of veteran director
Eugene Migliaro Corporon is to break down the wall between familiar music and contemporary compositions by bludgeoning it: he juxtaposes universal standards lke Rhapsody in Blue and the Washington Post March with newly composed music, mostly by composers with some connection to North Texas. The vaguely funky Radiant Joy of Steven Bryant may be the most persuasive of these, but the general method of getting audiences to listen to something new seems sound in any case. The suite from
Howard Hanson's Merry Mount is a fine orchestral work that did not deserve the disuse into which it has fallen, and the level of inspiration on the disc as a whole never flags for long. The level of recording engineering is unusually sophisticated for a university-related disc, but then this is an ensemble with aspirations to be, as Ross Perot would say, world-class, and it achieves that goal in large part.