Nelson: Rocky Point Holiday; Sonoran Desert Holiday; Passacaglia; Courtly Airs and Dances; Lauds (Praise High Day); Aspen Jubilee; Chaconne (In Memoriam); Epiphanies (Fanfares and Chorales)
Dallas Wind Symphony, Jerry Junkin, Ron Nelson, conductors (Reference)
Born in Joliet in 1929, composer Ron Nelson has written everything from film scores to masses and operas, and has more than 90 choral works to his credit. This disc, entitled “Holidays and Epiphanies,” concentrates on Nelson’s most well-known specialty, his music for wind ensemble.
Those who associate band music with rum-ti-tum martial rhythms will find Nelson’s music a delightful surprise. Ingeniously arranged and bristling with energy, Nelson’s music is that rarest of animals, contemporary music that is intelligently woven, fresh and beautifully crafted yet consistently upbeat and audience-friendly. There is a genuine American quality to Nelson’s music, a simplicity and naive rusticity that is very appealing, from the buoyant high-spirits of “Rocky Point Holiday” to the nocturnal glimmering of “Sonoran Desert Holiday,” and the rapt twilight languor of “Aspen Jubilee.”
Most impressive is Nelson’s “Chaconne,” a moving benediction inspired by a midnight visit to the Washington Vietnam Memorial, all the more affecting for its restrained emotion. The more dissonant “Epiphanies” finds its way through ominous tritones and percussion rumbles to a resoundingly affirmative conclusion.
Performed with great exuberance by the Dallas Wind Symphony and recorded with the Reference label’s usual audiophile fidelity, this is a wonderful disc of life-enhancing music for wind ensemble.
