Music for Brass Septet 2

Description

This second volume of Septuras brass chamber music series (Vol. 1 being available on Naxos 8.573314) takes us back to the 17th c. and the music of Baroque opera, in four contrasting works by Rameau, Blow, Purcell and Handel. The astounding variety in content, color and character of the originals demands especially inventive arrangements, and these pieces are vividly brought to life by incorporating stylistic elements from period performance. The exhilarating result is a stunningly virtuosic set of new Baroque works for brass. Each volume of this projected ten-volume set will focus on a particular period, genre and set of composers, creating a counter-factual history of brass chamber music. Septura aims to redefine the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium by creating a canon of brass septet classical art-music through transcriptions, arrangements and an ever-increasing number of new commissions. Septuras members, the leading players of the new generation of British brass musicians, all hold principal positions in todays most preeminent British orchestras. Uplifting debut from a magnificent sevenall ace musicians, as this stirring, thoughtful debut CD for Naxos confirms. (The Observer, on Vol. 1)