Wow, I didn’t know it was possible to get more than 80 minutes flat on a disc, let alone in a SACD. This is not just a limited-interest program designed for fellow brass players and collectors with a special interest in brass music. It is an exciting program of great variety and a terrific demonstration of the advantages of surround sound reproduction of music. The brass section of the Concertgebouw began giving some programs just of brass or brass and percussion during tours of the U.S. and also doing brass master classes. They were so well-received that the practice is continuing, and here is a sample of the sort of programs they are performing. Their conductor is the Concertgebouw’s principal trombone, who also guest-conducts widely.
Willem van Otterloo’s Serenade was written in 1944 and is based on the wind serenades of the 18th and 19th centuries. The short Giovanni Gabrieli’s Canzon was so successful musically and spatially that I wanted to hear lots more Gabrieli – the king of antiphonal brass music. Hans Werner Henze’s brass work is 11 short dances scored in a spirit of humor and parody. The last selection – Concerto Grosso – began life for a smaller aggregation, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, and was later rescored for brass band. It incorporates jazz influences in its one uninterrupted movement, and reminded me of the jazz-influenced works of Leonard Bernstein.
– John Sunier
