Steven Bryant: In this Broad Earth

Summary

The music of American composer Steven Bryant has in recent years become a common fixture in band rooms in high schools and universities throughout the United States. In this album, Bryant showcases three pieces for advanced wind ensemble written between 2007 and 2015. It begins with the fanfare In This Broad Earth. With its open harmonies and recurring rhythmic motives, the piece is by turns reminiscent of fanfares by Copland and John Adams, and serves as a delightful entrée. The last work on the record, the Concerto for Wind Ensemble, is a tour de force for the entire band.

The centerpiece of this album is Bryant's Concerto for Alto Saxophone, written in 2014 for American saxophone virtuoso Joseph Lulloff. In a nod to saxophone nerdery, Bryant uses the opening motive from the first movement of Paul Creston's Sonata for alto saxophone and piano as the Grundgestalt from which all other ideas in this work germinate. From the beginning, this piece is filled with an amazing intensity: a quiet but frenetic solo saxophone line is gradually picked up and transformed throughout the ensemble, like the buzzing of a beehive. It is almost as if Bryant has allowed the saxophonist the use of the whole wind orchestra as an expressive device.

The Concerto is a wonderful match for the talents of Joseph Lulloff: the first and third movements showcase his incredible, fluid technique and his captivating expressive gifts. However, it is hard to imagine how many other performers could perform the second movement as effectively as Lulloff: the entire movement is built off of (and calls upon) the performer's parallel skill as a top-flight jazz improviser. While there are a handful of players who possess the skills as concert and jazz performers required for this work, there seems to be something of Lulloff's very soul and personality in the piece. Due to the intensive working relationship between Lulloff and Bryant in the Concerto's genesis, any future performers of this work must view this as the definitive recording, especially for the second movement, where Lulloff's improvisation comes into direct contact with notated music by Bryant inspired by other, earlier improvisations by the performer.

Throughout the recording, the Michigan State University Wind Symphony performs brilliantly, with an extremely large pallette of colors.