John Philip SOUSA (1854–1932)
Music for Wind Band - Volume 13
Occidental March (1887) [2:55]
Mother Goose March (1883) [2:16]
Katherine – Operetta Overture (1879)* [7:28]
Chris and the Wonderful Lamp – Operetta, Act II: Mama and Papa (1899)* [2:21]
President Garfield’s Inaugural March (1881) [5:58]
President Garfield’s Funeral March ‘In Memoriam’ (1881) [3:30]
Resumption March (1879) [3:01]
Gallagher and Shean – Humoresque (1923)* [5:17]
Paroles D’Amour – Waltzes (1880)* [8:41]
Camera Studies – Suite [11:21]
While Navy Ships are Coaling* [5:16]
White Plume March [2:18]
The Central Band of the RAF/Keith Brion
rec. RAF Northolt, London, 24-29 February 2012. DDD
* world première recordings
NAXOS 8.559729 [60:22]
John Philip Sousa was and remains the legendary composer of
music for military band. Only his British counterpart, Kenneth Alford,
came close to challenging him. There’s a great deal of his music
– as well as this thirteenth volume in the Naxos series I have been
listening to its successor, on 8.559730,
from the Naxos Music Library – and it’s all well worth hearing.
When James Garfield was inaugurated as President in 1881, Sousa was so
well established that he was the natural choice to compose the march for
that occasion (Volume 13, track 5) and, poignantly, he composed the commemoration
march for the funeral four months later (track 6).
The classic Sousa recordings were made by the Eastman Rochester Wind Ensemble
under the command of Frederick Fennell. Several of their interpretations
remain available on Mercury, albeit mostly immured in a 55-CD box –
4785092 – and as downloads from Beulah at eavb.co.uk.
I have reviewed several of those Beulah reissues in various editions of
Download Roundup/Download News. They remain highly recommendable and can
be purchased separately, but five of the items on the Naxos Volume 13
and two on Volume 14 were not recorded by Fennell or anyone else, though
all contain the authentic Sousa spirit. As well as marches, both volumes
also offer music of other kinds, equally appealing.
There are none of the great favourites here: Liberty Bell is
on Volume 6: 8.559132,
The Thunderer on Volume 5, 8.559131,
Washington Post on Volume 8, 8.559248,
and Stars and Stripes on Volume 4, 8.559093,
and all four feature on a 2-CD anthology from the series, 8.572651/2,
but don’t let that deter you from Volumes 13 and 14. The attraction
of having the less well known works is that you may have already followed
me in snapping up the four marches that I have named in the Fennell recordings
from Beulah: 2PD82 with other American Wind Band Classics, from
iTunes,
29BX182, 30BX182 and 33BX182 respectively.
Rob Barnett gave his approval to Volume 12, recorded with the Royal Swedish
Navy Band – review
– as did John Sheppard – review.
Though Sousa was as proudly American as they come – there is even
a story that his immigrant father chose a name that ended with USA, but
that’s probably an urban myth – the Swedish performances are
fully idiomatic and the Central Band of the RAF also do him proud on both
the volumes that I have heard.
Staunchly patriotic as he was, Sousa was also interested in establishing
international relations, as in the famous Hands across the Sea.
I was particularly interested in the medley of national tunes on track
12 of Volume 14: The International Congress, here arranged by
Keith Brion for wind band.
The recordings, obviously more modern than the Fennell series, good as
those are for their age, do full justice to the music and performances
and there are detailed notes by Keith Brion – also available to
subscribers to Naxos Music Library if you choose to listen there.
An index of reviews of earlier volumes in the series on MusicWeb International
can be found here.
I intend to explore more of the series, so readily on tap as it is from
Naxos Music Library.
Brian Wilson
Reviews
of the Sousa series on Naxos
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