BSO Brass at Shalin Liu (Michael J. Lutch photo)

How often, during a concert, do you get to watch grown men at the top of their game taking unselfconscious joy in playing together? Each knows the role he plays in the common effort. Each delights in contributing his unique skill to the group, and each takes pride in meeting the high standard they have set for themselves. It makes for special moments, and those were plentiful on Friday evening at the Shalin Liu Performance Center as the BSO Brass Quintet offered a program nicely balanced with music old and new.

The quintet comprises Mike Roylance, tuba; Thomas Rolfs and Thomas Siders, trumpet; James Sommerville, horn; and Toby Oft, trombone. Robert Dodson, Director of Boston University’s School of Music, recently brought the five BSO players together as the resident Boston University Brass Quintet. (They maintain their full-time BSO schedules: Roylance, Rolfs, Sommerville, and Oft are principals; Siders is assistant principal.) The concert on Friday was their second under this sponsorship, and given its success, Dodson’s vision should be applauded. The evening in Rockport was filled with well-chosen selections, virtuoso musicianship, warm camraderie, and moments of laugh-out-loud humor. (Anyone who feels that the classical music world has become too stodgy should treat themselves to an evening with these gentleman.)

The program began with a composer new to most, Ivan Jevtic. Living and working in Paris, Jevtic flew over to hear this concert. His Three Slavonic Madrigals (1982) were just right. “Madrigals” suggests the tone and mood: Lively melodies infused each movement. Sparkles of counterpoint alternated with surges of unison melodic gestures throughout. The third piece closed with a burst of melodic lines.

A selection of six pieces by Giles Farnby (16^th century) arranged for brass quintet reminded us of the parallel between writing for brass instruments and for voices. Hearing harmonies and chords spaced for maximum sonority is a rare treat. The pieces each ended a single extended chord — always perfectly in tune — clearing the air for the next piece and letting us all hear the whole lovely space of the Shalin Liu Performance Center resonant in harmony.

Bernstein’s Elegy for Mippy II (a dog) for trombone solo was light and fun. Introduced as being for trombone and foot, Toby Oft’s right foot provided the “percussion,” perfectly consistent and steady, tapping at about 60 per minute. The jazzy looseness of the Bernstein prepared the audience for the next piece, Ivan Jevtic’s tightly crafted Quintette Victoria (1980).

Jevtic knows how to make instruments sound their best. The surprising changes in the direction of his musical thought occur without destroying the “long line” of the music. For example, at one point, the pure magic of a very soft passage (complete with muted tuba) made us lean forward to catch the details. As we began to perceive the texture, a muteless trumpet unloosed a loud and fast interruption. The intensely quiet ensemble continued without notice, despite the rude trumpet’s ongoing interruptions. Jevtic’s juxtaposition of rich, sustained textures punctuated by ascending rifts and bursts was always convincing. His play of foreground and background kept interest high. This is new music that successfully balances the demands of head and heart.

Gunther Schuller’s Music for Brass Quintet (1961) was simply marvelous. Introduced as one perspective on mid-20th century music (the Malcolm Arnold providing a quite different view), the quintet made the piece sing. Occasional overtones of Webern’s pointillist textures were backed up with rich, jazz-like harmonies. Throughout, the fragmented lines were made coherent by careful attention to articulations and balance. A beautiful almost-ballade for muted trumpet was supported with sensual chords. Spatters of individual sounds gathered into collections of colors: we were reminded of Jackson Pollack.

A difficult episodic duet by Jan Bach, Oompah Suite for Horn and Tuba (2006) followed. As the two players sat down, Sommerville (horn) quipped to the audience, “This is a hard piece. We haven’t got it right this far!” “Yeah, the wronger it goes, the righter it sounds,” Roylance (tuba) responded. With the opening flourish from the horn, they proceeded to play a delightful piece full of phrases with abrupt shifts, and (believe it or not) sequences.

After dark at Shalin Liu (Michael J. Lutch photo)

Arnold’s Quintet shared little with Schuller’s Music for Brass Quintet beyond the common date (1961). The style is vastly different. The tonal flourishes of the trumpets, the punctuations by the remaining ensemble, the full bass lines of the tuba, beautiful solos from the trombone and horn, lots of color contrast, beautifully balanced dynamics, articulations: This is ensemble playing at its best.

Throughout, the players included the audience in their conversational reflections on the pieces and their easy humor. While one player expelled condensation from a crook between movements, another declared in a stage whisper, “Stall tactic!” After intermission, another player complimented the audience for having been to so many brass concerts (puzzled silence). He explained that he drew this conclusion from the fact that the front rows of seats were empty (laughter all around). These musicians know the difference between playing in a symphony and playing chamber music.

The members of the BSO Brass Quintet are friends, and the resulting camaraderie was infectious. We heard one departing concert-goer say to another, “They were having so much fun.” His companion replied, “Well, that was fun.” We couldn’t have said it better.

Lyle Davidson, composer, studied at New England Conservatory and Brandeis. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he teaches Solfege, 16th-century Counterpoint, and Music in Education courses.

Alvin Lucier, now 81, is one of the most sensitive, poetic, and challenging of that group of then-young composers who emerged during the 1960s. He began working with electronic music when he became director of the country’s second Electronic Music Studio, established by Irving Fine at Brandeis University in the early 1960s. Working in that studio, Lucier experimented with musique-concrete, loops of sounds made from spliced quarter-inch tape, and feedback systems. Recognizing a connection between electronic circuits and brains, Lucier began experimenting with the musical implications of his own brain waves, a study that resulted in the gentle Music for Solo Performer (1965).

Prior to this, Lucier had won a Fulbright Award for study in Italy. He had been composing lovely neoclassic music, pieces in which each pitch was placed into just the right resonant relationship with the surrounding sounding pitches. His intense focus on the effect a sound can have on its environment has remained constant throughout his music. And what music it is! Minimalist before the frenetic minimalism of the New York school, lyrical without being melismatic, austere and economical in its simplicity before the more recent retreat to mediaevalism, both space-filling and filled with space in ways that Stockhausen’s Gruppen for three orchestras can never achieve, Lucier’s music provides a setting that lets the listener realize again that the true place of music-making is in each listener’s head. The absolutely lovely performance by Edward Kass of A Tribute to James Tenney (1986) for solo double bass and pure wave oscillators exemplified this quality beautifully. And that was only one of the many pieces in which this magic quality emerged. The attention to and quality of the performances was outstanding.

Conservatory faculty member Steven Drury assembled Lucier’s music and that of other composers (Feldman, Chopin, Wolff, and others), into programs that were comprehensive, satisfying, and at the same time, still provocative. This exhilarating and freshly awakened quality so present during performances of the festival was, alas, brought to a sudden close by the fire. Perhaps soon, we will get to hear the world premiere of Braid, a work for flute, english horn, clarinet, violins, viola, and cello, and more of Lucier’s music in Jordan Hall. Many of us want to listen closely to more of this unique and lovely music. In the meantime, as a grateful NEC faculty member, I say thank you, Steve, and thank you, Alvin.

Lyle Davidson, composer, studied at New England Conservatory and Brandeis. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he teaches Solfege, 16th-century Counterpoint, and Music in Education courses.

The North Shore-based chamber music ensemble, Music at Eden’s Edge, performed at the North Shore Art Association in Gloucester on September 20^th.  Chamber music originated as concerts given for relatively small groups assembled in a salon or parlor.  The second-floor room at the North Shore Art Association, painting-filled and lamp-lit, and the audience of about 45 people made the setting just right for this lovely chamber music program.

The sultriness of the weather was wonderfully matched by the mellow and mysterious opening of Mozart’s “Dissonant” Quartet Kv. 465.  Mark Berger’s String Trio No. 2 after T. S. Eliot (that surely demanded careful and rigorous counting by the performers) surrounded the listener with flowing lines, harmonies, and colors.  The evening closed with the rhapsodic lyricism of Brahms’ Quartet Op 52 No. 2 in a minor.

Chamber music needs to be played by performers who are in synchrony, who breathe together.  Neither too loose nor too taut, the connections between the players must be just right — and being just right, they draw the audience in.  That is what happened last night.

Nicely balanced, energetically and musically linked, the group was in wonderful form.  The skilled leadership of first violinist, Dan Stepner, made this possible.  He led the group with the sureness and musicality that has made his playing so important to Boston’s music lovers for so long.  In an age that places such importance on image, it is a treat to hear such dedication to substance.

Inner voices play a special role in chamber music requiring players who can listen with particular astuteness.  Maria Benotti and Mark Berger, Violin II and Viola respectively, were responsive and supportive in equal measure.  The viola melodies in the Brahms were lovely.

As the 16^th century musician Zarlino points out, the bass part is like the earth, everything rests on it and is cradled by it.  That role was beautifully taken by Lynn Nowels last night.  Her playing of the “dialogues” between the first violin and cello, matching nuance for nuance, was delightful.

A word about Mark Berger’s String Trio is appropriate (since most readers will already be familiar with both the Mozart and the Brahms).  Don’t be put off by the seven “movements.”  Giving each instrument a prominent role in one of the interludes is very effective and helps articulate the overall form.  The piece does not feel long.  Let me say that Berger “has an ear.”  His sense of harmony and aural connection is strong.  What many composers present as sonic effects (pizzicati, harmonics, and glissandi) he uses with musical effect.  His control and shaping of texture and harmonic pacing was just right.  (This piece will be performed again on Dick Pittman’s first Boston Musica Viva concert of this season at Boston University on Friday next).

The concert marked the end of the 30^th summer season of Music at Eden’s Edge, a group of musicians dedicated to providing quality chamber music for North Shore audiences.  Maria Benotti is the founder and Artistic Director.  At a time when classical music organizations both large and small are struggling to maintain their audiences and programming, we on the North Shore owe Maria Benotti a great debt for the vision and energy she has brought to the work of making this important repertoire so accessible to us right here in our neighborhoods.

Lyle Davidson, composer, studied at New England Conservatory and Brandeis. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he teaches Solfege, 16th-century Counterpoint, and Music in Education courses.

The music flowed off the stage of Abbot Hall (the Marblehead home of SBS) and out into the audience. Such detail, such balance. At times like a tennis match the violins would state a phrase, the cellos would take it and return it: Back and forth the phrases went, then the violas interrupted with their rich, dark sound. The cellos entered and reminded us of the warmth of the opening. Is this heaven? The Strauss was beautiful.

There are many ways to mar the delicateness of the Barber, but Palma played it straight with a tempo that was just right. The balance made the textures transparent so the voices were all clear. One rarely hears the piece in this way: played simply, without a lot of extra emoting. The ending simply faded away. One could no longer tell if the last notes were still sounding or not. There was no real cutoff — the music simply floated away into an extended silence. The audience continued listening long after the sound passed and that says it all: This was a powerfully moving performance.

Throughout, Palma used his whole body as an instrument. The orchestra responded beautifully to his direction, whether it was a strong cue from the right hand, a more subtle gesture from the left, or even a timely raising of a shoulder. He uses levels like a dancer and everything counts to good musical result. What a treat: No wasted motions, no gestures for effect.

The orchestra was in fine form. The Grieg was in exactly the right place in the program and what a delight it was. The high energy of the “Praeludium” was just the thing to bring us back after the Barber. It was filled with detail. The falling melodic sequence of the violins was picked up by the bustling violas, who brought the melodic line back up the violins who repeated the gesture. This was delightful music-making. The combination of the violins’ melody and the pizzicatos in the basses was breathtaking. The plaintive cello melody in the “Sarabande” played by first cellist Cheryl Campbell carried us away. In the “Air,” the basses and cellos took up the melody and made us experience anew the real depth those instruments bring to the orchestra. Robin Scott, a graduate student from the New England Conservatory, was the concert master and what a talent! His performance of the solos in the opening of the “Rigaudon” were totally commanding and beautifully supported by the viola (Melissa Bull) and the rest of the violins, who provided rhythmic punctuation.

That could have been the end, but there was, happily, still more after intermission. The Dvorak Serenade opened with its busy bustling, yet lyrical first movement. The soft and delicate falling of the violins in the waltz movement, the careful measuring of musical space that takes place in the dialogue between double basses and the first violins gave new dimension to the sound of the orchestra. Then came the playful “follow the leader” of the cellos and violins in the third movement, designed to set up the more reflective and lyrical Larghetto that followed. There was a moment in the faster section of this movement that reminded us we were not in heaven, but on we went to the explosive opening of the last movement. Suddenly and all too soon, the evening of music was over. It was a wonderful concert from beginning to end. What a gift from Symphony by the Sea and Marblehead’s Abbot Hall.

The next concert on the second Saturday of April (9 April 2011) will feature Sibelius’ Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Op 46, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, and the Schumann’s Concert for Violoncello, Op. 129, with cellist Joel Krosnik. There will be no snow by then. Make the trip and give yourself and a friend (or your whole family) a present to be long remembered.

Lyle Davidson, composer, studied at New England Conservatory and Brandeis. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he teaches Solfege, 16th-century Counterpoint, and Music in Education courses.

In this concert, Emily Quane, soprano, and David Wilson, tenor, were joined respectively by pianists Raquel Gorgojo and Yoko Kida.

What a treat it was to hear the richness of the texts sung with such exquisite clarity and purpose. The enunciation was so clear that one didn’t need the English translations that were thoughtfully and discretely projected above the stage. The shifts in vocal color reflected the subtext, chilling at times, heartwarming at others. This listener was reminded of the harmonic shifts that convey the emotional undercurrents of Puccini’s characters.

Coquettish behavior, pleading, feigned indifference, outrage, and tenderness: One rarely has such an opportunity to eavesdrop on the highs and lows of a relationship. Reflecting the situation of each song, a lifted eyebrow, a defiantly thrust jaw, a turned head, or averted eyes, spoke volumes. The pacing of the songs made the cycle a story. If you were not there, you missed a treasure of a musical experience.

The “accompanying” piano was a true partner to the voice in these performances, sometimes moody, sometimes buoyant, setting the mood of the song, sustaining it, suggestive throughout, and appropriately closing each piece. Seasoned performers with long résumés, both pianists rendered their parts sensitively, however demanding in both technique and emotion. Both engaged beautifully in the give and take of the partnership with their singers. It was a pleasure to hear such ensemble work, “collaborative piano” at its best.

The attention to the “set” was indicative of the care with which the entire program was conceived and presented. Lovely in its simplicity, it consisted of a single seat discretely back and off to the side; the close-by table with a magnificent orchid nodding back toward the performing musicians. It took care of what could have been an awkward waiting one’s turn as the songs were presented in small groups by first one and then the other pair of performers.

An informed and informing introduction to the cycle of songs was provided New England Conservatory Professor Deborah Stein, who sketched Hugo Wolf’s place in the great stream of German lieder.

The [plain] song can be heard again continuing the Wolf song cycles on Sunday April 18 and on Sunday May 9 at 4pm in Endicott College’s Rose Performance Hall, a delightful new performing arts theatre with wonderful acoustics for performers and audience alike.

Right on the coast, Endicott College is small, but it is poised to make a big impact on the cultural life of the North Shore with its new performing arts center and such wonderful programming. Don’t miss it.

Lyle Davidson, composer, studied at New England Conservatory and Brandeis. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he teaches Solfege, 16th-century Counterpoint, and Music in Education courses.

One might think that 12 short pieces in simple forms would be tedious. Not so! Under the baton of Donald Palma, the Symphony by the Sea (about 35 players) was just right for the music. The balance was probably as close to what Beethoven imagined as one is likely to hear: Enough strings to make an orchestral sound, but not so many that the winds and brass became strident.

Immediately, the entrance of the horns signaled we were in for some fine music-making. Palma led the orchestra through the arresting entrance of the horns, into the surprising appearance of the theme from the 3rd Symphony in the seventh piece, to the clarinet solos in the graceful, on-your-toes dance of the final piece, making the set nicely formed and full of life.

The startling opening chords of the Overture to the Ballet music continued the adventure. The “How dry I am” melody in the horns was soothed by Johathan Knox’s elegant oboe solo (Knox is the featured soloist in the January program). The dissonances in the Third Symphony were stunningly wrought. The addition of a third bass in the symphony produced a richer and deeper weight that exemplified the ear that Palma brings to his work. Throughout the concert, new colors, contrasting textures, and speeds of development delighted enthusiastic listeners.

Donald Palma’s (as well as the orchestra members) attention to musical detail was constantly evident in the careful blending and balancing of phrases and colors. When the violins were joined by the flute, the sound was not just a doubling, but a play with hue and value that created a new sound-color. The solos and ensemble playing of the flutes, oboes, and clarinets were a real treat. At the close of the Prometheus, the trumpets and brass, and percussion really came into their own. The passing of fragments back and forth between the horns and clarinets was simply delicious. Symphony by the Sea is not a collection of players, but an ensemble that listens to one another. We don’t often hear that kind of performance from orchestras.

Given Palma’s consideration of detail, it is not surprising that the program was also carefully constructed; one Beethoven piece prepared the way for the next. The audience kept hearing fragments and gestures that seemed familiar, but from a different piece. Palma’s selection showed Beethoven trying out ideas in one form and then another as the program advanced. This listener left the concert contemplating Beethoven’s inventiveness and willingness to try things out first this way and then that.

Oh, by the way, the next concert is on January 23rd, 2010 in the same place (across from the Salem train station). See you there.

Lyle Davidson, composer, studied at New England Conservatory and Brandeis. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he teaches Solfege, 16th-century Counterpoint, and Music in Education courses.