"Around the World in 80 Minutes"
April 15, 2002
by Michael Barnes, The Austin American-Statesman

After the loudest tuning session this side of the Longhorn Band rehearsal hall -- and the first in a series of excruciatingly cute curtain speeches -- the Austin Symphonic Band launched its internationally-themed Saturday concert with "American Overture for Band" by Joseph Jenkins. Unfortunately, this piece relies heavily on the horn section, the weakest link in this ensemble.

Under conductor Richard L. Floyd, the band improved for a bright prelude by Gustav Holst, a languid setting of an Irish melody by Luigi Zaninelli and a suite dedicated to the Louvre Museum by Norman Dello Joio. The improvement could be credited to the winds.

Despite progressively more hideous curtain speeches, the band caught its balance for the concert's second phase, bagging the spit and polish in a Carl Teike march, the complicated rhythms and harmonies in Alfred Reed's "Armenian Dances" and the sweetness of Percy Grainger's "Australian Up-Country Tune." If John Barnes Chance's "Variations on a Korean Folk Song" escaped the ensemble at times, they made up for it with Jack Stamp's valentine to baseball, "Pastime."

The Austin Symphonic Band at times sounds as rigorous as a professional ensemble. Progress can still be made in counterpoint and legato. And that speechmaker has got to go.

The Austin Symphonic band plays free concerts at Zilker Park on Mother's Day (May 12) and Father's Day (June 16), 345-7420, www.asband.org.