Band music from the October concert

Somehow I neglected to write about my band's fall concert, which took place on October 28 -- exactly two months ago. Here is the program:

Ride - Samuel Hazo
Selections from Wicked - Stephen Schwartz (arr. ???)
Concerto for Violin in D Maj.* - Tchaikovsky
Symph. Metamporphoses, etc., Mvt. 4 (March) - Hindemith

Intermission

La Gazza Ladra Overture - Rossini
Irish Tune from County Derry & Shepherd's Hey - Percy Grainger
Klezmer Classics - Johan De Meij
Symphony No. 9 in E min. (New World), Finale - Dvorak
Orpheus in the Underworld Overture - Offenbach

*The violin soloist for the Tchaikovsky was Cynthia Arden.

The concert was recorded, and I got the CD two weeks ago. The two tracks I thought came out the best were the final two movements of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (as one track) and La Gazza Ladra. For your listening enjoyment, I've uploaded MP3s of these tracks:

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Canzonetta and Finale

La Gazza Ladra, The Thieving Magpie

I think the slow Canzonetta movement of the violin concerto is a good example of the band's orchestral style. The faster finale begins with an attacca transition at the 6:16 mark. It requires more technical skill from the band, especially after 15:10, when the band takes over the line from the violin; it was about this point where the trumpets and woodwinds got embarrassingly out of sync in the midst of a roller-coaster sixteenth-note run.

If I had my way, I'd probably take parts of La Gazza Ladra a little slower than we played it. (We did the ending at an absolute break-neck speed!) It is a common problem among community bands to drag the tempo, accommodating the members who can't play so fast. My band, if anything, has the opposite problem. Sometimes I think the band director takes things faster than they need to be just to show everyone that we can do it. But it doesn't always sound good.