Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
The Nutcracker (1892, arranged for brass septet, 2017)
Septura
rec. 2019, St. Jude’s Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London
NAXOS 8.574157 [65:24]
The liner notes for this welcome CD describe this project as “Christmas in a crucible.” I am only familiar with the word crucible referring to a porcelain vessel. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines additional meanings, one of which is “A place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development.” This is a very apt description of what the Septura team of artists have developed for this CD. Septura is a London-based Brass Septet which has made a series of fine recordings for Naxos recently. This is their first CD that has been devoted to one entire work, namely, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet. What they have given us is a compilation of the holiday fantasy that combines some of the music interspersed with the narration of Derek Jacobi who takes us through an adapted version of the story credited to Matthew Knight. He used the lightened up version of Alexandre Dumas rather than E.T.A. Hoffmann’s somewhat dark original story.
The musical choices have been made with great care by Simon Cox as to what pieces would work the best with scoring for a brass septet with the addition of percussion. Predictably the martial sounding sections would be included but there have been some other unexpected pieces chosen to adapt with some very successful results. The most original of these is a delightfully lugubrious version of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Tchaikovsky’s original orchestration primarily uses a celeste, making it light and delicate in texture; here, it becomes a gently humorous commentary which put me in mind of the tutu-clad dancing elephants in Disney’s Fantasia. This was the absolute highlight of the disc for me. Other numbers such as the Arabian or Coffee Dance develop a similarly original feel about them in their new brass costuming.
Throughout the recording the Septura members play with wonderful precision and commitment. Their sound is clean and well produced. They are assisted by the spacious acoustic which was well captured by the recording engineers. Derek Jacobi recites the story very elegantly with appropriate wonder and humour.
An original and very welcome presentation of traditional Holiday confection.
Mike Parr
Performers
Alan Thomas & Simon Cox - Trumpets in B flat, Huw Morgan - Trumpet in E flat,
Matthew Gee & Matthew Knight - Trombones, Daniel West - Bass Trombone, Peter
Smith - Tuba, Scott Lumsdaine - Percussion
