Vittorio Giannini’s Third Symphony has been recorded many times, and rightly so. It’s a band classic: tuneful, beautifully written, fun to play, and just plain good music. The reference version has long been the old Eastman Wind Ensemble on Mercury Living Presence, and this newcomer is quite different. The University of Houston Wind Ensemble plays the music with striking lightness and delicacy. The reeds remain perfectly in tune, and there are moments, as in the main theme of the scherzo, with its stopped horns, where you will hear touches of color as in no other performance. The Mercury recording has more sheer excitement in the outer movements, but I suspect many listeners will welcome this beautifully lyrical alternative.
The three short works are all expertly written, but all reveal a certain sameness that for me suggests that you might not want to listen to them all at once. The Variations and Fugue, on the other hand, is a late masterpiece dating from 1965, the year before the composer’s death. It’s actually more of a passacaglia, seemingly inspired by the finale of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, and its exploration of troubled emotional states makes it far more than an occasional work. Like the symphony, it’s very well played here, and the sonics are also very good. This is another very successful entry in Naxos’ ongoing series devoted to interesting band repertoire. Now let’s hope that they give us some of Giannini’s orchestral works too. [5/26/2006]
