John Ardoin, writing in the Dallas Morning News said, "Lees worked out this material with a particularly tough and vivid rhythmic sense....the Concerto was a piece that Shone brightly and communicated unerringly."
Continuing to gain a strong foothold in the orchestral repertoire, this work was given performances by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and Nassau Symphony (New York). Observed Philip Kennicott in Long Island's Newsday, "Benjamin Lees' Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra was the high point. Lees' music is thoughtful, coherent and powerful. He strictly avoids the usual tendency of brass choirs to veer off into maddening medleys and baroque banalities. Instead, he explores the more sinister, military genealogy of brass instruments. In anguished and anxious passages he is worthy of comparison with Shostakovich."
Eduardo Mata's performance with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on March 17, 1990, elicited this response by Paul Gerard in the Milwaukee Journal: "Lees' love of the orchestra's texture and power qualifies it as neo-Romantic. Still, Lees is not interested in the banal, blaring `John Williams-style' fanfares that are popular in recent orchestral writing. The concerto is rhythmically driven, built primarily on two- and three-note motifs. The time signature shifts constantly. At one point, a three-note figure seemed to be on its way to syncopation oblivion when it sneaked into the first rhythmic groove of the composition--a mad, clanking doomsday dance. For all its rhythmic challenges, the
MSO played the piece with dynamic precision and fire."
The first New York performance of this work took place December 3, 1989, at Carnegie Hall, with the American Symphony Orchestra led by James DePreist. Commenting in the New York Daily News, Bill Zakariesen observed, "It's a lusty piece of impressive sonorities, and it sustains interest through its near 25-minute running time. The audience certainly took to it."
Jahja Ling and the Florida Orchestra presented the work March 7, 8 and 10, 1990, in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Kurt Loft of the Tampa Tribune commented, "The piece opened the eardrums early on and stayed intense throughout, bombarding listeners but also maintaining a somewhat Wagnerian undercurrent in the strings. The concerto unfolds on several levels and might be described as sensual rather than cerebral. Its impact could be felt in the overall program."
Under the direction of Music Director Leonid Grin, the San Jose Symphony performed this work on February 18, 19 and 20, 1994. Commented critic Paul Hertelendy in the San Jose Mercury News, "'Francesca' had to share billing on the program with a beautifully crafted Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra by Benjamin Lees, 70. Lees' style consists of a great rhythmic acuity and eagerness to take broad leaps in his themes. Lees' brand of tonality is a comfortable one for audiences skittish about new sounds. Critics too are drawn to his use of the entire 12-member brass section alternately as a solo group, and as an integral part of the ensemble.
"The 18-minute work in two connected movements received honest, bold performances, enkindling a good part of the Friday night audience to give the chipper, upbeat Lees a standing ovation when he came on stage."