University of Virginia Library

Contemporary Piece

The last work before the
intermission, a contemporary piece,
"Variations on a Korean Folk
Song" by John Barnes Chance
contained an amazing scoring for
various sorts of unusual percussion
instruments that was most pleasing.
The Band's outstanding execution
of this work made it one of the
highlights of the performance.

After the intermission, the
audience returned (at least most of
them) for what I had hoped would
be the highlight of the program, a
transcription of one of Bach's
greatest concert organ pieces, the
"Passacaglia and Fugue in C
minor." This work, with its ground
bass and subtle use of variations is
an amazing piece of counterpoint.

My respect for Bach in light of
this work is too great as to allow
myself to mince words concerning
the Band's performance of it. The
Band started out weak, notably
missing some of Bach's
ornamentation and never really
pulled itself out of the polyphonic
mess which it got itself into, despite
Mr. Lazar's valiant but vain efforts.