Scott Cantrell

The Dallas Wind Symphony opened its season Tuesday evening with a real grab-bag of a program. We got Ron Nelson's Rocky Point Holiday, a busy, splashy piece that out-Bernsteins Bernstein. We got Francis Poulenc's Suite française, a sendup of renaissance dances in tart neoclassical harmonies. We got Gabriel Fauré's Chant funéraire, a somber movement the composer would rework as the slow movement of his Second Cello Sonata.

The concert, at the Meyerson Symphony Center, opened with Carl Friedmann's Liszt-meets-Sousa Slavonic Rhapsody, a piece of utter inanity that made a jolly noise. At the end came Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in a Mark Hindsley arrangement for symphonic wind ensemble that hewed pretty closely to the familiar Ravel orchestration.

The Nelson seemed to get the tautest performance, with some virtuoso marimba licks. Elsewhere, although artistic director Jerry Junkin gave clear, expressive direction, one was occasionally conscious that this was the season's first concert for a part-time ensemble. Trombones, at least in a seat right in the line of fire, were repeatedly a hair (or more) too loud.

In the Mussorgsky, flutes and clarinets weren't as rigorously tuned as might be wished, and the "Bydlo" movement was a bit hurried for a portrayal of a lumbering ox-cart. The Fauré, at least in this guise, didn't make much of an impression.

Part-time or not, this group usually plays with more consistent polish, and doubtless will do so on its next concert, on Oct. 21. It was fun, though, to hear the Poulenc played by a reduced ensemble of four winds, five brasses, harpsichord and percussion.

As usual, the concert was prefaced by a fanfare in the Meyerson lobby. Conducted by David Kehler, Bill Boston's Fanfare for New South Wales #3 was probably too busy for the highly reverberant setting.