This
is the first of a planned sequence of four CDs designed to
illustrate four aspects of the brass quintet. It will be
followed by Something New, which “will feature music
written specifically for brass within the past twenty years”, Something
Borrowed, which “will be a lighter disc featuring arrangements
of various works which are enhanced by brass transcription” and – you’ve
guessed! – Something Blue, devoted to “the world of
jazz, blues and popular music”.
Designated
as Something Old, this first CD only partly lives
up to its billing. Certainly most of the music was not originally
written very recently. But, given that Mardi Brass play on
modern instruments, most of it has had to be arranged, some
of it fairly extensively; and some of it, of course, was
not written for brass instruments at all.
It
is surely rather odd to claim that a modern arrangement of
Rameau’s Gavotte and Six Variations, written
for solo harpsichord and published in 1724, offers much evidence
as to the “evolution of the brass quintet”. Or that arrangements
of Mozart’s Church Sonatas have very much to do with that
history.
Even
when we turn to works originally written for brass instruments
there are still problems in regarding this CD as any kind
of historical study. So, for example, the sonata by the German
Johann Vierdanck was originally written for cornets and sackbuts
but, of course, is here played on modern instruments. The
Chaconne by Merula was written for two treble instruments
(cornets might be used), a solo bass part (perhaps a trombone?)
and basso continuo. Here two extra parts have been added
to do, more or less, the work that the continuo did originally.
I’m not, of course, opposed to the rearrangement of pre-existing
music, so I don’t mean to suggest that there is anything
wrong with any of this – except for the suggestion that what
we are hearing is early music for the brass quintet or music
that played any real role in the evolution of the brass quintet.
Having
said all that, I must also say that I did actually enjoy
listening to the CD! Mardi Brass play with energy and discipline
and create some finely nuanced tone colours. Their version
of Rameau is great fun; the Mozart Church Sonatas are very
well arranged and enjoyable to listen to, even if the results
don’t convey very much sense of their liturgical origins.
The
only work originally written for Brass Quintet is the second
of Victor Evald’s quintets. It is played with obvious affection
and the second movement’s theme and variations are particularly
successful. Ewald’s tuneful music is presented very persuasively.
Here, of course, Mardi Brass have some competition - I can
think of recordings by Stockholm Chamber Brass on BIS and,
perhaps the best recording, by the Wallace Collection on
Deux Elles.
There
is plenty to enjoy here in the playing of an obviously accomplished
group – so long as one doesn’t take the implied history lesson
too seriously.
Glyn Pursglove
AVAILABILITY
London
Indepenent Records