Malcolm Arnold - Brass Chamber Music (Fine Arts Brass)

Information

Composer: Malcolm Arnold

• (01) Fanfare for Louis
• (02) Brass Quintet No. 1, Op. 73
• (05) Fantasy for B flat Trumpet, Op. 100
• (06) Little Suite for Brass No. 1, Op. 80
• (09) Fantasy for Horn, Op. 88
• (10) Little Suite for Brass No. 2, Op. 93
• (13) Fantasy for Trombone, Op. 101
• (14) Little Suite for Brass No. 3, Op. 131
• (17) Fantasy for Tuba, Op. 102
• (18) Brass Quintet No. 2, Op. 132
• (21) Symphony for Brass, Op. 123

Fine Arts Brass

Simon Lenton & Angela Whelan, trumpets

Tim Thorpe, horn

Katy Pryce, trombone

Sam Elliott, tuba

Bryan Allen & Andy Culshaw, trumpets

Simon Hogg, Kevin Pitt & Lyndon Meredith, trombones

Stephen Roberts, conductor

Date: 2006

Label: Nimbus

https://www.wyastone.co.uk/arnold-the-complete-brass-chamber-music.html

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Review

A cracking anthology of Arnold’s complete works for brass

Sir Malcolm Arnold was a big fan of the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble and he wrote his Second Brass Quintet after a request from the group’s founder Bryan Allen for “a short second-half opener”. Premiered at the 1988 Cheltenham Festival, it’s a delectably idiomatic affair, whose three movements clock in at just over five and a half minutes – less than half the duration of its better-known predecessor. Long since acknowledged as a classic of the genre, the First Quintet (composed for the New York Brass Quintet in 1961) combines crowd-pleasing melodic appeal (both outer movements will have you grinning from ear to ear), depth of expression (try the cloud-hung central Chaconne) and meticulous craftsmanship (as a former principal trumpet with the LPO, Arnold knew everything there was to know about the brass family).

The present generous programme culminates with the uncompromising yet gripping Symphony that Arnold fashioned for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in 1979. Current and former FAB members team up for a dazzling display that easily matches the PJBE’s own mesmeric premiere recording (reissued on Decca’s British Music Collection and – more recently – Vol 1 of the same company’s lavish Arnold Edition). Elsewhere, four solo Fantasies (for trumpet, horn, trombone and tuba) are interspersed with the three Little Suites (originally for brass band but arranged here for brass quintet by trumpeter Simon Lenton), and the disc kicks off with the playful Fanfare for two trumpets that Arnold penned to mark the 70th birthday of Louis Armstrong (the legend who inspired him to become a musician in the first place).

These immaculately prepared, fervent performances have been vividly and spaciously captured by the Nimbus production crew, making this a genuine tonic for Arnoldians and brass-heads alike.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

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Malcolm Arnold (21 October 1921 – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. He was ranked with Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain. His output of works features music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Arnold

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The Fine Arts Brass Ensemble was founded in 1980 in England. has given more than 3000 concerts since its inception, and has played in more than 60 countries, often representing the British Council. The ensemble has appeared at every major British Music Festival, and has commissioned over 100 new works from a variety of contemporary composers. It has given its own series of light entertainment shows on BBC Radios 2 and 4 and broadcasts regularly for Radio 3. The Fine Arts Brass has made over 30 recordings for various companies, many of which have been for Nimbus Records.

https://www.fineartsbrass.com/

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