Played this piece in high school on timpani and that's when I found out what hard work does for you. I made All-State in Virginia that year and became recognized as a timpanist as well as a percussionist.
Meh... performance is superb, but this composition lacks McBeth's umph for the first half. Strong discordant structures, but little juxtaposing winds to percussion. Then, in the second segment, a good deal of it had the "texture" of his earlier (amd personally much more flavorful) The Seventh Seal... IMHO.
We played this under McBeth's baton in 1974 at SMU summer band camp - the year before it was published. WOW, what memories this brings back.
Played this piece in high school on timpani and that's when I found out what hard work does for you. I made All-State in Virginia that year and became recognized as a timpanist as well as a percussionist.
Meh... performance is superb, but this composition lacks McBeth's umph for the first half. Strong discordant structures, but little juxtaposing winds to percussion. Then, in the second segment, a good deal of it had the "texture" of his earlier (amd personally much more flavorful) The Seventh Seal... IMHO.