Review

Alan Pierce
Concerto:

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Publisher:
Date of Publication: 2010

Manuscript. Piano reduction score, solo bass trombone, and solo tuba parts.

Primary Genre: Solo Bass/Contrabass Trombone - with piano

Like Alan Pierce’s Trio in D Major, his Concerto for bass trombone is written in a late Romantic style that eschews the more controversial musical innovations of the past century. For many performers, this is a desirable attribute. It is a highly challenging work in five movements, with a playing time (as submitted) of at least twenty six minutes.

Simply writing a piece in an accessible, familiar style is no guarantee of the work’s quality. Pierce does an excellent job of creating a bass trombone concerto that could have been composed by Shostakovich; there is much truly outstanding writing here. The first movement is playful and buoyant, followed by a majestic second movement, a lyrical third movement, an exceptionally beautiful fourth movement, and a tongue-in-cheek final movement. Pierce is especially adept at writing themes and throwing in the little twists that keep them fresh. The potential exists for performing individual movements or groups of movements, should the soloist not want to take on the whole work yet still achieve an effective performance. Dynamics tend to hover in the forte range, and some discretion is advised to create the maximum musical impact.

This is definitely a work for the advanced performer. Range spans from CC to c2, and although much of the piece stays in the lower middle register, there is enough playing in extreme registers to make this a real workout. Pierce’s Concerto could eventually become one of the most popular bass trombone/tuba works: it is that good. It can be ordered directly through Alan Pierce: piercebatons@aol.com

-Chris Buckholz
University of Northern Iowa