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Harmony in Blue
Suite for Variety Orchestra (listed as Jazz Suite No. 2) arranged for wind ensemble by Johan de Meij; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue arranged for piano and wind ensemble by Donald Hunsberger[a]; Jan Van der Roost: Poème montagnard.
René Joly, Ensemble vent et percussion de Quebec, Gérald Levesque (piano)[a].
Atma Classique ALCD2 1029. DDD. TT 54:25.
Recorded Henri-Gagnon Hall, Université Laval Faculty of Music, Quebec City, 12, 18 & 19 January 2002. Produced in association with Université Laval Faculty of Music.

The Suite for Variety Orchestra is not Shostakovich's true and original Jazz Suite No. 2 of 1938 as described in Atma Classique's booklet, but rather arrangements by other hands of light pieces from his stage and film oeuvre. Thus, what we have here is a translation of a translation. The Suite wears its new instrumentation with ease, shedding any lingering stuffiness of the concert hall along with the strings.

Dutch composer Johan de Meij's 1995 wind band version omits two of the eight movements, Waltz I and Little Polka, because he felt that for its intended audience all eight would be rather too long, and, with three waltzes, somewhat repetitive.

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René Joly and the Wind and Percussion Ensemble of Quebec face direct competition from de Meij himself, leading the Arnhem Symphonic Winds (Amstel Classics CD 9501). The Canadians have an advantage in Atma Classique's excellent recording, which has crisper, more open acoustics than Amstel's, but the two bands are fairly evenly matched in their high level of performance.

In general, the Quebec group have a softer touch than their Dutch rivals. For example, in the Lyric Waltz, which in de Meij's arrangement feels smoky and less urbane than in its orchestral guise, the Wind and Percussion Ensemble are more restrained. Though I prefer Joly's lighter approach in the cheeky Dance II, and his relaxed and playful handling of the Finale, the swaggering March and riotous Dance I benefit from their more jaunty treatment by the Arnhem Winds.

When asked what inspired his arrangement, de Meij explained, "The inspiration was simple: I am a big fan of Dmitri Shostakovich! I know almost all of his works, and have played several symphonies [as trombonist]. But there was also a commercial reason: the second Waltz became a huge hit here in Europe, and many bands wanted to play it. The main reason for this success was the version by violinist Andre Rieu and his Orchestra; he sold zillions of CDs just because of this little tune."

The tune in question, Waltz II, hails from the 1956 film The First Echelon, and also owes some of its popularity to its recycling in another film, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Its humour is decidedly askew, and I find that the Arnhem Winds' unbridled attitude suits it better than does the Quebec group's more earnest viewpoint.

Atma Classique partner the Shostakovich Suite with Donald Hunsberger's arrangement for piano and wind ensemble of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which is based on Ferde Grofé's first two jazz orchestra versions of the piece. Also present is Belgian composer Jan Van der Roost's recent Poème montagnard, which opens with a naturalistic evocation of the mountainous Valle d'Aosta in Italy, complete with wind machine, bringing to mind the sound world of Hovhaness, with distant echoes of Vaughan Williams. The work includes heroic and Renaissance-dance passages that commemorate the Valle d'Aosta's history, and makes an enjoyable addition to the disc.

Amstel Classics give us a full programme of wind band arrangements by Johan de Meij. Some of these have the same ironic twinkle in their eye as does the Shostakovich Suite, namely Darius Milhaud's jazz-inspired Trois Rag-Caprices, and three pieces by Satie that de Meij has compiled under the label Ratatouille Satirique. The album as a whole is also entitled Ratatouille, so it is fitting that the other ingredients are varied: joyful arrangements of Polish Christmas carols; the noble anthem from Jupiter in Holst's The Planets plus the rollicking Jig from his St. Paul's Suite; and the patriotic trio section of the second movement of Dutch composer Bernard Zweer's Symphony No. 3. Another rarity is funeral music from Grieg's melodrama Bergliot, consisting of two fragments, the first a transparent copy of Siegfried's Death and Funeral March from Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the second reminiscent of Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary (which, for those keeping score of Kubrick connections, turned up on synthesiser in the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange). Welcome too are three movements from Nielsen's Aladdin Suite: Oriental March, Aladdin's Dream & Dance of the Morning Mist, and Negro Dance, the last mercifully shorn of its embarrassing chorus.

In the end, both performances of de Meij's version of Suite for Variety Orchestra are enjoyable, so the couplings should be the main basis for choosing.

W. Mark Roberts
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