MiV Home
Phillip T Young Recital Hall
January 14, 2012
When it comes to jazz, I feel the same way that S.J. Perelman felt about medicine: I don't know much about it, but I know what I like.
Unfortunately, among the much that I don't know about is New Orleans-style traditional jazz, which must make me almost uniquely unqualified to review the second part of Saturday's recital, in which tubaist (is there really such a word?) Eugene Dowling celebrated his first half-century of playing one of music's ungainliest (in the purely physical sense) instruments.
Still, as far as I know, I was the only person clutching a notebook and pen in the hall on Saturday and so my opinions, uninformed as they are, will, faute de mieux, have to do.
But let us begin, as did the recital, with music that I can (perhaps) comment on with something which at least resembles intelligence (I've always been quite good at impersonation).
Those whose entire experience of the tuba has been at symphony concerts (or perhaps, if over a "certain age" memories of Danny Kaye and "Tubby the Tuba") might well have been surprised at the agility and lyricism of which the instrument is capable - in the hands of a master, that is.
And any doubts (not guilty) that Dowling is such a master would have been rapidly dispelled by the evening's opening work, the sonata by Bruce Broughton, given a superb performance by Dowling and pianist Tzenka Dianova.
After a rather jolly piano introduction, the first movement took off with a vigorously athletic theme played by the tuba; indeed the movement (and performance) was suffused with rhythmic energy.
The slow movement was intensely lyrical, with some wonderfully unexpected twists and turns in the melodic line - if you imagined that the tuba could not "sing", here was the perfect counterexample - and some lovely tone colouring by Dianova.
The bouncy 6/8 finale concluded a piece whose slightly acerbic harmonies and use of the entire range of the tuba are reason enough for it to find a place in the standard repertoire of tubists (ah, perhaps that's the word, although I can't say I prefer it).
After the Broughton, Dowling briefly spoke to the audience, pointing out that, in the first movement alone, he had probably played more notes than in some entire Victoria Symphony seasons. "The 'New World' Symphony, I swear to God, fourteen notes."
The Adagio from Shostakovich's ballet The Limpid Stream is one of those rare pieces of Shostakovichian lyricism that does not sound like a lament for the victims of Stalinism. It is short and sweet, and Dowling's final note seemed to float effortlessly in the air. Beautiful.
Finally, in the "conventional" part of the evening, came the Sonata by Anthony Plog, of which Dowling was co-commissioner; he also gave the Canadian premiere of the work.
I confess that if the first movement is actually in sonata form, it escaped me; but such carping is really irrelevant in the face of music which alternated a beautiful, flowing tuba melody over gently rippling piano, with more stirringly martial episodes.
The second movement gave us all an opportunity to see just how large a mute for the tuba is (enormous, in fact, with a wood grain to its base that seemed to match the stage flooring perfectly); marked presto and played to match, the sudden end raised a distinctly audible chuckle from the audience.
After a delicious slow movement, with a sprightly faster section, the music moved attacca into the agile and energetic finale. After a short, slow, almost Dvoràkian "reminiscence" (I believe there was a reference to the very opening of the work) the final accelerando brought the music to an exciting close.
After the interval - during which I spoke with several people who had not heard Dianova play previously, and who (quite rightly) expressed their admiration for her pianism - Dowling was joined by (or, looked at another way, he joined) the Bastion Jazz Band for almost an hour of spirited and enjoyable music.
I was slightly disconcerted to realise that I was familiar with just over a third of the music they played - I'm really not that old. Nor, as noted above, am I really qualified to make more than a few general observations about their "set".
The first such is to remark that Dowling fit right in to the band - and I do know a little about playing in a band - and clearly feels completely at ease in their very different idiom. His bass lines were perfect and his soloing most impressive.
The band themselves, whom I had not heard before, are no slouches either. Their ensemble is marvellous and achieved with very few obvious signals, as one would expect from a group that has been together for almost three decades.
Highlights of the set included the transformation of the standard 3/4 of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" into a rousing 4/4 stomp, the a capella vocal chorusing of "This Little Light of Mine" and Aaron Watson's remarkable soloing on the saw in "Out in the Cold Again"; for once, it would actually be appropriate to refer to it as the "musical saw". And I cannot forbear to mention what looked rather like a Lurex Nehru jacket worn by Stephen Brown. Very "showbiz".
A most enjoyable celebration indeed.
MiV Home