North Hills Fantasy was commissioned by the North Hills High School Bands, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (director: Len Lavelle) as part of a commissioning programme that has run since 1965 – the longest of its kind in the USA. The work opens with a reflective, unaccompanied solo for alto saxophone which develops into a chorale for horns and saxes. This is taken up by the trumpets and subsides to a change of key and mood, with highly decorated folk-like solos for clarinet, bassoon and saxes. These solos build to a climax for full band, which heralds a triumphant return of the horn chorale, accompanied by florid woodwind figuration. But the mood soon winds down; fragments of earlier melodies return calmly to peacefully close the work. Duration: 5.30
