Monteverdi were equally effective for brass and organ. Composed by Parisian organist Marcel Dupre, the work commemorates the French victory at Verdun. The Paramount Brass and organist James David Christie did the opposite Saturday night at the Baptist Temple in a concert for the Charleston Chamber Music Society. The members spoke only enough to announce changes in their program. The music was serious, but fascinating, from start to finish.
Brass quintets deserve some sympathy.
Unlike string quartets, which can play a season of just Haydn or Beethoven, these quintets add to a smaller repertoire by arranging music from other media. In performance, they demonstrated a formidable musical mastery and a multicolored tonal palette. Contrasts between the brass and organ were heightened by contrasts among the high and low brass. Harrison and Gray sonorously matched Christie's informed playing. The surprise was that all of Beethoven's complex orchestral ideas could be re-formed into the small brass quintet.