I had the opportunity to perform a recital at Penn State, and two recitals at the University of Illinois.
Here are a couple of the pieces that I performed on these recitals.
Pelham Music Festival Recording
Rumanian Dance No.3 by Dumitru Ionel
University of Illinois Recordings
Tuba Sonata by Anthony Plog This work is characteristic of Anthony Plog’s compositional style including many fast technical passages, chromaticism and multiple tonalities. The sonata is separated into four movements with the first two being stand alone movements and the third and fourth being one continuous movement.
Sonata for Tuba by Alec Wilder This work was written for Harvey Phillips one of the great legacies of the tuba world. Phillips is notable for enlisting the help of Wilder to write music for the tuba community since at the time this was written in 1959 there was not original music for tuba. The work is separated into four movements and includes jazz influences throughout.
One More Dance by Roger Kellaway Roger Kellaway is a very influential composer for the tuba community. He has written some of the most challenging music such as Songs of Ascent to a memorial in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. This work was commissioned for Roger Bobo by twelve of his previous students, most notably Tom McCaslin. This work is fun, energetic and was an aesthetically pleasing end to my final recital at Illinois.
Penn State Recordings
Tuba Concerto by Martin Ellerby
This piece is different than a normal concerto because it is one continuous movement, not 3 separate movements. It starts off with a beautiful slow theme which is later developed. Then it takes that theme and reuses aspects of it in the fast section.
Bruckner Etude by Enrique Crespo
This ‘etude’ is a work in the style of Anton Bruckner written for a low brass sextet by Enrique Crespo. Its great chord structure and intense build ups will keep you yearning for more! It is a wonderful work for low brass to play as well as to listen to.
Songs of a Wayfarer by Gustav Mahler
This song cycle is a great work and one that helped make Mahler’s work popular. The second movement’s theme was reused in Mahler’s first symphony. This work is very programatic, it was written about Mahler’s first love and how she left him.
There are four movements in the song cycle:
1. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht (When my darling has her wedding day)
2. Ging heut Morgen ubers Feld (I walked across the fields this morning)
3. Ich hab’ein gluhend Messer (I have a red-hot knife)
4. Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz (The two blue eyes of my darling)
Penn State videos edited by Chris Walmark, Illinois videos edited by Andrew Dolgon
Below is an audio clip that I edited and optimized it for multiple formats:
Concerto for Tuba by Bruce Broughton – Joseph Alvarez, Nov. 14 2015
