Pittsfield — Pittsfield’s Eagles Band has worked with some excellent conductors over its storied 80-year history, and the group’s present conductor, Carl Jenkins, surely ranks high among them. Since joining the Eagles Band as Principal Conductor in 2014, Jenkins has led the group into ever more advanced musical territory and expanded their repertoire in unexpected ways. The band’s April 24 concert at the First United Methodist Church in Pittsfield nicely showcased the group’s burgeoning capabilities.
On Sunday’s (April 24) program, works by Paul Hindemith, Dimitri Shostakovich, and two contemporary composers of serious concert music — Andrew Boysen and Jan Van der Roost — outnumbered the more familiar composers on the program. Even the ubiquitous John Philip Sousa was represented by one of his less familiar pieces, “Manhattan Beach March,” which departs a bit from the bandleader’s usual conventions.
Sunday’s show opened with Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” an over-the-top, satirical “celebration” of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. The audience, clearly pleased by the piece’s catchy melodies and grandiose fanfares, responded with vigorous applause. The Boston Symphony Orchestra likes this piece, so Berkshire audiences are likely to be familiar with it.
Andrew Boysen’s “It Finds an Echo in My Soul,” based on the Shaker hymn “How Can I Keep From Singing,” was commissioned by North Adams’ Drury High School Band in 2009. (Carl Jenkins was their director at the time.) This is an enthralling work of substantial breadth and complexity, and the band took obvious pride in the piece’s local origins. The audience loved it.
“March,” from Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber” may be a staple of the concert band repertoire, but that doesn’t make it easy to play. The group’s willingness to take on such difficult pieces is just one example of how adventurous these players have become under Jenkins’ leadership. Their performance of “March” was impressive. Yes, “March” is a march, but it’s definitely not your grandmother’s John Philip Sousa. In fact, Hindemith’s music is reminiscent, at times, of Gustav Mahler’s unsettlingly surreal marches.
Guest trumpeter Steven Felix, a 2007 graduate of Drury High School (North Adams), performed Carl Hohne’s glorious “Slavonic Fantasy,” a piece Jenkins aptly calls “a multi-mood gypsy/Slavonic style concerto.” This is a showpiece for advanced trumpeters, and Felix was clearly up to the task. His playing was intense and virtuosic in the fast passages, warmly sympathetic in the slow.
As its title implies, “Slavonic Fantasy” is based on Eastern European folk music. The same is true of “Puszta,” by the Belgian composer Jan Van der Roost. These four dances share common roots with some of the Hungarian and Slavonic music by Dvořák, Brahms, and Liszt.
Much of Sunday’s program was perhaps unfamiliar to audience members. But all of these pieces are so engaging that they draw an audience in on the first listen. Mr. Jenkins has excellent taste and is an educator at heart. As long as he directs the Eagles Band, both the players and their audiences will continue to enjoy the benefits of his professionalism and adventurous spirit.
Founded in 1936, the Eagles Band is the Berkshires’ oldest continuing performance ensemble. They’ll give free concerts on June 21 and August 16 at the Performance Pavilion on the Pittsfield Common. Download their 2016 concert schedule here.
A former member of the West Point Band, Carl Jenkins is presently Artist Associate in Oboe at Williams College and since 1973 has been principal oboe for the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra. He was the conductor of the Drury High School Bands from 1976 to 2009.
