The most dedicated of brass lovers will admit that even the most brilliant of brass recitals can wear on the ears. The exceptions that prove the point are enduring classics like the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble’s two CDs on Claves. Or this splendid new concert by famed trumpeter (and corno da caccia virtuoso) Ludwig Güttler’s Brass Ensemble, which he conducts, and for which he plays lead trumpet.
Consisting of brass music for Christmastime, the program takes a very different, occasionally provocative look at the hymns and chorales which abound at the end of the year, and bookends them with two marvelous marches by Handel, one of Giovanni Gabrieli’s resplendent Canzoni, and Jeremiah Clarke’s great Trumpet Voluntary.
Although the generous amount of music, mostly short pieces, is divided thematically by various hymns, the heart of the CD are chorales and chorale arrangements by Johann Crüger (1598-1632) and Michael Praetorius (1572-1621). For an inventive change of pace, there is a gorgeous song setting by Max Reger and a unexpected bonus in the form of three fascinating and totally delightful madrigals from Seven Madrigals on Negro Spirituals Op. 58b (arranged by Bernhard Güttler for brass and percussion) by the legendary violinist Adolf Busch.
The superbly full and rich sound, with just the right touch of reverberation, was recorded in the Dresden Frauenkirche. Here, as described perfectly in Eckart Schwinger’s outstanding liner notes, “It is precisely the unsentimental, dynamically animated and richly contrasting language of the brass instruments which gives the song-like simplicity of the music its glittering sparkle.”
– Laurence Vittes
