Remembering the Beach

"Another excellent recording by William Berz's Rutgers Wind Ensemble. ... The music is cerebral. Virgil Thomson's little pieces, mostly arrangements, are whimsical and insistently dissonant. 'At the Beach' was composed for violin and piano in 1929, then arranged for trumpet and band in 1949. American Brass Quintet trumpeter Kevin Cobb gives the nostalgic, amusing work a strong reading. 'Portrait of a Lady' was called 'Insistences: A Portrait of Louise Crane' when Thomson wrote it for piano in 1941; this band setting is from 1949. The unusual beginning -- the band slowly, methodically plays long, unison notes in circle-of-fifths order -- precedes a quirky middle. ... 'Edges: A Portrait of Robert Indiana' (1966) is busy and dissonant until a final gong ..." (Barry Kilpatrick, American Record Guide, Sept./Oct. 2013, p. 245).

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