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 SOUND
THE BELLS!--American
Premières for
Brass
Harmonia Mundi- HMU
807556(CD)
featured in The
Horn
Call
by Calvin Smith
May 1, 2011
This
is a "Wow" CD, with no negatives
about the recording. Exciting,
beautiful, energetic,
contemplative, and varied
compositions with extraordinary
brass playing and a full, clear,
perfectly balanced recorded sound
- did I omit anything? Brass
players, brass aficionados, and
fans of the exceptional composers
heard here will have a very
enjoyable hour of
listening.
The
three Williams fanfares are the
thrilling music we have come to
expect when John Williams sets
out to thrill us. Sound the
Bells! was composed in 1993 to
honor the marriage of Crown
Prince Naruhito and Crown
Princess Masako Owada of Japan.
The premiere, also in 1993, was
in Tokyo as part of a Boston Pops
tour. Fanfare for a Festive
Occasion was written for the
Boston Civic Orchestra and was
premiered by them in 1980. In
1992 the city of Boston
celebrated the 500th anniversary
of Columbus' voyage to the New
World. One of the many
celebratory events was a concert
by the Boston Pops Orchestra
attended by Britain's Prince
Philip in whose honor Aloft...To
the Royal Masthead was
written.
Michael
Tilson Thomas's Street Song was
originally a brass quintet
commissioned by Rolf Smedvig for
the Empire Brass Quintet. This
expanded version is for twelve
players, and its US premiere was
by The Bay Brass in
1997.
Morten
Lauridsen has contributed two
exemplary works. His Fanfare for
Brass Sextet is dedicated to The
Bay Brass and is an energetic and
jazz flavored work. It is well
written in a concise canonic
style. O Magnum Mysterium,
originally a choral work that was
written for, and premiered by,
the Los Angeles Master Chorale,
loses none of it beauty and high
emotional content in its brass
ensemble version.
Primarily
known for his compositions for
film and television, Bruce
Broughton is becoming a
well-known name in concert halls.
His music is melodic,
rhythmically inventive, and
contains moments of both beauty
and excitement. Fanfares,
Marches, Hymns and Finale was
commissioned and premiered by The
Bay Brass in 2002 with the
composer conducting.
Elegy
is an arrangement of an earlier
string quartet and was written
for The Bay Brass. It exactly
what the title implies: a
beautiful work of remembrance and
dedication, and here it is
performed with great warmth and
emotion.
Premiered
in 2005 by The Bay Brass, Spirals
by Scott Hiltzik is a lively and
bouncy work in mixed meter. It
would be an excellent opener for
any brass ensemble concert or, as
it is used here, it ends a CD
program of extraordinary and
varied music that is performed by
musicians of the highest quality.
I'm sure you will enjoy many
hours of listening to this
stellar recording. CS
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