Ernst Toch is famous today for one piece: the Geographical Fugue for speaking chorus. Later in his career he evolved what can only be described as a rather nasty-sounding chromatic musical style that has few admirers today. Early in his career, however, he wrote Spiel, a delicious little hors d’oeuvre for wind band in three movements containing a central “Idyll” that could very well become a popular hit given a little radio airplay in the right markets. Boris Blacher’s zippy little wind divertimento offers similar charms. The remaining three works on the disc belie the disc’s title “German Wind Band Classics”. The Hindemith Band Symphony and Schoenberg Theme and Variations are both American works, while Karl Hartmann’s Symphony No. 5 (an energetic piece based on the opening tune of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring) isn’t really written for band, but for a normal orchestral wind ensemble plus some lower strings. Well, what’s in a name, right? All of these pieces are played with panache, and my only quibble with the performances is that the Hartmann would have benefited from closer observation of the score’s dynamic markings, particularly from the bassoon and principal trumpet, and the Hindemith lacks the last ounce of manic energy and sheer guts. Otherwise, this is a useful, interesting, and highly entertaining collection, very well recorded.
