Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra ...
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 Shostakovitch."
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 {sic} a good part of the Friday
night audience to give the chipper, upbeat Lees a standing ovation
when he came on stage."