COMPOSERS: Barber,Carter & Thompson,Cowell,Glass,Harris,Ives,Ruggles
LABELS: Hyperion Helios
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: From the Steeples and the Mountains
WORKS: American music for brass by Ives, Barber, Harris, Ruggles, Cowell, Glass, Carter & Thompson
PERFORMER: London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble/Christopher Larkin
CATALOGUE NO: CDH 55018 Reissue (1992)
Even if they make it from shrink-wrapping to machine, discs of music for brass usually occupy my loading tray very briefly. Something to do with the fact that so much brass music concentrates more on idiom than substance. But from the very opening track of this re-release – Ives’s upliftingly cacaphonic From the Steeples and the Mountains – the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble demands close attention. Pieces by seven other giants of 20th-century American music, from Ruggles to Carter, some obviously more radical than others, complete the disc. All, even Philip Glass’s uncharacteristic, youthful Brass Sextet, say something that makes one want to listen. Brilliant playing helps. Stephen Pettitt
Ives, Barber, Harris, Ruggles, Cowell, Glass, Carter & Thompson
Even if they make it from shrink-wrapping to machine, discs of music for brass usually occupy my loading tray very briefly. Something to do with the fact that so much brass music concentrates more on idiom than substance. But from the very opening track of this re-release – Ives’s upliftingly cacaphonic From the Steeples and the Mountains – the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble demands close attention. Pieces by seven other giants of 20th-century American music, from Ruggles to Carter, some obviously more radical than others, complete the disc.
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:17 pm