Recordings

Well, I found a site that I was satisfied with for hosting some of the recordings of the brass quintet. I wasn't planning on paying for the service, so the search for a free hosting service was painful to say the least. However, I think this one will work fine. Of course, the damaging limitation of bandwidth applies to all the free accounts, and I am limited to 15 mb per day. Thus, I did not embed the sound files into this post, as that would probably kill the bandwidth pretty quick. That's not to say there are lots of people reading this, but when an mp3 is 5 mb in size, it doesn't take long for 15 mb to go.

That being said, it might be more prudent to download (right click and save as) the files as opposed to loading them. I've scanned them, converted them and they are clean, so no worries there, but it's up to you.

The first one I'll put up is the last movement of Victor Ewald's Quintet No. 2, for brass quintet. Ewald was a Russian composer, and also happened to be a civil engineer. His 3 works for brass quintet are possibly the only true original works for brass quintet written in the Romantic era of music. There is a 4th that he wrote, but it was determined that it was a transcription of one of his string quartets, so brass players felt insulted, and don't usually count No. 4 as part of the brass repertoire. Ewald's music is characterized by soloistic playing in all parts, not just the trumpet lines. Ewald wrote every note with a purpose, be it driving the melodic or harmonic lines, or adding to the rhythmic texture. The parts may sound soloistic, but they are not for the sake of simply showing off.

The Quintessential Brass really wanted to perform Eric Ewazen's Colchester Fantasy on this recital, and we worked hard to pull it off. Ewazen is a composer who is also a professor at the Juilliard School of Music, and he writes some of the most amazing music out there at the moment. Usually his compositions are dedicated to, or commissioned by various brass musicians, or by his favourite quintet, the American Brass Quintet, who are also at Juilliard. He wrote Colchester Fantasy for the ABQ while he was in teaching at a festival in Colchester, England. Each of the 4 movements are named for, and based upon, old Colchester pubs that he visited. The Rose and Crown is the first movement of the work, and is filled with bright, sonorous chords, energetic rhythmic patterns and constantly changing and fluctuating motives.

Hope you all enjoy, let me know what you think!