Fanfare: British Music for Symphonic Brass Ensemble
Arthur BLISS (1891-1975) Fanfare for a Dignified Occasion (1947)
[0:23]
Arthur BENJAMIN (1893-1960) Fanfare for a Festive Occasion (1947)
[0:37]
Edward ELGAR (1857-1934) Civic Fanfare (1927) [1:41]
Arthur BLISS (1891-1975) Fanfare for the Lord Mayor of London
[1:31]
William WALTON (1902-1983) Fanfare arr. M. SARGENT (1947)
[0:55]
Havergal BRIAN (1876-1972) Festival Fanfare (1967) [1:43]
Arthur BLISS (1891-1975) Fanfare for a Coming of Age (1973) [1:40]
Robert SIMPSON (1921-1997) Canzona for Brass (1958) [5:15]
Michael TIPPETT (1905-1998) Fanfare for Brass (1971) [2:22]
Arthur BLISS (1891-1975) Royal Fanfares 1-6 (1953) [7:41] (I
Sovereign's Fanfare [1:14]; II Fanfare for the Bride [0:32]; III Interlude
[0:36]; IV Royal Fanfare [0:39]; V Wedding Fanfare [1:11]; VI Royal Fanfare
[0:45]); Fanfare for Heroes [1:41]; Homage to Shakespeare [1:03])
Edmund RUBBRA (1901-1986) Fanfare for Europe (1972) [1:37]
Gordon JACOB (1895-1984) Interludes for Trumpets and Trombones
from Music for a Festival (1951) [7:58] (I Intrada [1:30]; II Round (of seven
parts) [1:20]; III Interlude [1:18]; IV Saraband [2:13]; V Madrigal [1:37])
Arthur BENJAMIN (1893-1960) For a State Occasion (1953) [0:52];
For a Brilliant Occasion (1953) [0:31]; For a Gala Occasion (1953) [0:33]
William WALTON (1902-1983) A Queen's Fanfare (1959) [0:47]
The National Anthem (1964) arr. M. COE (b. 1946) [1:10]
Locke Brass Consort/James Stobart
rec. 1976? ADD
CHANDOS COLLECT CHAN 6573 [38:42]
I have known this collection since buying its first version - an RCA LP: RL
25081. The collection’s LP origins are pretty obvious from the shortish
playing time.
“
Symphonic Brass Ensemble” signifies the traditional orchestral brass
benches plus, in this case, timpani for Elgar’s lavish Hereford fanfare.
While pandering to grand civic pride this fanfare manages to threads in some
tragedy as well, Hereford did well with this commission. Bliss’s Fanfare
for the Lord Mayor of London is splendid and perhaps pays passing tribute
towards the end of its 1:31 to Janáček. It’s one of the most
substantial of fanfares. Walton’s smashingly effervescent DNA imbues
his Fanfare as arranged by Sargent. Havergal Brian’s Festival Fanfare is
full of striking gestures, slashes and ascents. It’s alive with curmudgeonly
character and in touch with the world of his enigmatic, angry and noble symphonies.
Just as thrawn - and very much a symphonist - was Robert Simpson. While Simpson
has had all his symphonies recorded by Hyperion Brian still awaits this accolade.
It seems as far off as ever. Simpson was a granitic champion of Brian’s
music and was responsible for the effort that resulted in the BBC studio-recording
most of the 32 Brian symphonies for broadcast. His Canzona is the longest
musical paragraph here. It’s also the most earnest and even the most
beautiful in its evolutionary bloom. It dates from 1958 - the among the earliest
years of Simpson’s long stay as a producer with the BBC. Tippett’s Fanfare is
as distinctively Tippett as the Brian is pure Brian. His crunching and clashing
harmonic ramparts leave one in little doubt as to the composer’s identity.
Bliss’s Fanfare for Coming of Age is adroitly regal with the suggestion
of terraces and battlements - I wondered if it was intended for the Investiture
of the Prince of Wales - no such thing. It dates from 1972 and was written
for the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra. Bliss’s six Royal Fanfares
include side-drum and cymbal. They’re very inventive. The Bliss Fanfare
for Heroes looks back to the 1930 masterpiece Morning Heroes but
only passim. Bliss’s Homage to Shakespeare is self-consciously
antiquarian but with plenty of magniloquent Purcellian ‘attitude’.
Rubbra’s Fanfare for Europe has a slow and grand gait built and
is around the notes EEC. It was written for the UK’s entry into the EU.
Rather like the Bliss sequence, which also sports a central interlude, Jacob’s Interludes for
trumpets and trombones is inventive but unlike the Bliss it has something of
Rubbra’s Farnaby Improvisations about it. It dates from 1951.
The three Benjamin microscopies are imperiously clamorous. Walton’s arrangement
of a Queen’s Fanfare starts in with reminiscences of the Prelude
and Spitfire Fugue. Michael Coe piles the dissonance and complexity high
for his uniquely disquieting arrangement of the national anthem. It’s
bound, playfully and magnificently, to disorientate any audience.
The programme notes are by Noel Goodwin.
Elite brass playing superbly recorded in 1977 and all at bargain price.
Rob Barnett
Note from the Classical Editor
I am rather hoping that one of these days a certain short-lived CD will be
reissued. It is Twenty Fanfares for the Common Man and came out on Koch
International Classics in 1990, with Jorge Mester conducting the London Philharmonic
Orchestra (CD 3-7012-2). Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man was
among a series commissioned by Eugene Goossens one year after the USA entered
the Second World War. They were given their first airings at Goossens’ symphony
concerts in Cincinnati in 1942-43. They are:-
1. A Fanfare for Airmen, Bernard Wagenaar
2. A Fanfare for Russia, Deems Taylor
3. A Fanfare for the Fighting French, Walter Piston
4. A Fanfare to the Forces of our Latin-American Allies, Henry Cowell
5. A Fanfare for Friends, Daniel Gregory Mason
6. A Fanfare for Paratroopers, Paul Creston
7. Fanfare de la Liberté, Darius Milhaud
8. A Fanfare for American Heroes, William Grant Still
9. Fanfare for France, Virgil Thomson
10. Fanfare for Freedom, Morton Gould
11. Fanfare for Airmen, Leo Sowerby
12. Fanfare for Poland, Harl McDonald
13. Fanfare for the Medical Corps, Anis Fuleihan
14. Fanfare for the American Soldier, Felix Borowski
15. Fanfare for the Common Man, Aaron Copland
16. Fanfare for the Signal Corps, Howard Hanson
17. Fanfare for the Merchant Marine, Eugene Goossens
18. Fanfare for Commandos, Bernard Rogers
I wonder if any of you have a spare of this disc or would be prepared to let
me have a CDR.