A collection of three French horns and a bass trombone doesn’t sound like an exciting way to open a chamber music recital. On Monday night, however, this was going to be a concert that ran counter to expectations at every turn. So it was that horn players Michael Thornton, Christine Ott and Christian León with trombonist John Rojak entered Packard Hall for the fourth of five Festival Artists Concerts for this 40th anniversary edition of the Colorado College Summer Musical Festival.
They were charged with realizing the Choros No. 4 by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Ott and León are fellows (students) at the festival who joined their faculty (professionals) for the performance.
That’s the fact. The reality is that these aspiring young musicians performed superbly, matching the quality and intelligence of their teachers to render a superb performance. The Brazilian composer’s somber, modernist tones were ultimately won over by an irresistible Afro-Cuban dance, and the concert was properly christened.
There would not be another discouraging musical word uttered for the next 90 minutes. Despite its being the standard-bearer for the art form, the string quartet is seldom heard during this annual June festival. Nonetheless, violinists Stephen Rose and Steven Copes, violist Toby Appel and cellist Bion Tsang were set to perform Strum by contemporary American composer Jessie Montgomery.
Utilizing an abundance of string plucking and hand strumming, the award-winning composer’s collage .