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Summit Brass Night Anthony PLOG (b.1947) Summit Fanfare [2:30] Peter WARLOCK (1894-1930) Capriol Suite [9:57](transc. by Jay
Lichtmann) Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937) Alborada del Gracioso [7:58](transc, by
Michael Allen) Jimmy VAN HEUSEN (1913-1990) But Beautiful [5:23](arr. Tom Kubis) Rafael MENDEZ (1906-1981) Gallito [2:56](transc. by David Hickman) Joseph TURRIN (b.1947) Jazzalogue no.1 [2:19] Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918) La Martyre de Saint-Sébastien – Prelude no.1 [1:59] Manny ALBAM (1922-2001) La Brasserie [15:27] Richard STRAUSS (1864-1948) Fanfare der Stadt Wien [5:20] Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879-1936) Pines of the Appian Way (from Pines of Rome)
[5:59](transc. by Joseph Kreines)
Summit Brass
rec. live concert, 27 July 2007, Gates Auditorium, Newman
Center for the Performing Arts, University of Denver, Colorado,
USA SUMMIT RECORDS DCD500 [59:51]
It has become commonplace
in recent years to record live concerts and sell the outcome
commercially. Most of the world’s top orchestras, and
many other ensembles, follow this practice, and many fine
recordings have resulted. That this CD isn’t one of them
is not entirely the fault of the players, who are described
as an American ‘Dream Team of Brass’, thus raising expectations
to a very high level.
I’m not going to make
a cheap jibe by describing this as a ‘nightmare’, because
it really isn’t anything like that bad. It’s just that,
overall, this is a pretty humdrum issue that never fulfils
the promise of its own ‘blurb’. Why? Well, a number of
reasons. Firstly, the music chosen, which is a rag-bag
of light classics and pieces in a jazz idiom. Many of
these are transcriptions from other media – full orchestra
or string orchestra – and there’s nothing wrong with that
in itself, as it’s fairly inevitable with a group of this
kind. But the arrangements themselves are of highly variable
quality; Lichtmann’s version of Warlock’s Capriol Suite comes
over pretty well, but Ravel’s Alborada del Gracioso,
a wonderfully subtle and evocative piece in its original
form, is far less successful, and seems a rather odd choice. The
same applies to the disc’s concluding item, the finale
from Respighi’s Pines of Rome, where, fine though
they are, the players can’t quite do justice to the music’s
magnificent climb from obscurity into blinding light.
Perhaps I’m being unfair,
in that, knowing the original versions, I can’t help making
invidious comparisons. Be that as it may, it still seems
to me that the most successful tracks are those featuring
pieces conceived for brass – Strauss’s unusual Fanfare
for the City of Vienna of 1924, or Anthony Plog’s lively
little Summit Fanfare, written, as you’d expect,
especially for this ensemble. Manny Albam’s La Brasserie (nice
title!) is another Summit Brass commission, and features
the tuba solo of Harvey Phillips. Not great listening
unless you’re a tuba player, and then probably for professional
reasons only. The tuba bumbles about amiably, but the
movements, though not very long, all overstay their welcome.
The Latin-American Gallito,
arranged for a trio of trumpet soloists, and Joseph Turin’s Jazzalogue
no.1, on the other hand, are both great fun, and draw
the best playing from the performers and the warmest response
from the audience, who, for the most part sound somnolently
respectful rather than enthusiastic.
Ultimately, though,
it’s the actual playing which doesn’t quite deliver. There
is a certain cautious quality at times, which leads me
to wonder if the group, despite the undoubted eminence
of its individuals, really needs a conductor to bring the
best out of it. In the end, a mildly entertaining and
respectable CD, which will be of interest to lovers of
brass ensemble music as well as to brass players.
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