The Center City Brass
Quintet (CCBQ) is one of the finest
groups of its kind to be found anywhere.
The members are all distinguished
players with top US orchestras and/or
soloists, and the playing is as brilliant
and immaculate as you would expect.
The choice of works
for this CD, all of it American music,
is certainly enterprising. Anthony
diLorenzo is the youngest composer
represented, and his short ‘Fire Dance’
makes a scintillating prelude. Michael
Tilson Thomas’s ‘Street Song’ is an
impressive and developed work. As
you’d expect from a musician of Tilson
Thomas’s calibre, it is highly accomplished,
yet suffers possibly from one or two
too many sub-sections, and in the
end I found it slightly disappointing.
Definitely worth hearing, though,
if only for the many elusive stylistic
references.
André Previn’s
‘Four Outings’, composed for the Philip
Jones Brass Ensemble, is a thoroughly
enjoyable short suite. The third and
fourth movements are probably the
best, the third with its harmonic
twists reminiscent of Kurt Weill,
and the finale with catchy irregular
rhythms. The rapid tonguing of the
CCBQ trumpets at the climax is quite
something to hear.
Eric Ewazen was a
new name to me, as was the notion
of naming the movements of a suite
after pubs! Ewazen spent some time
in Colchester in 1987, and clearly
did some very serious research; he
says that the names of these old English
pubs ‘... brought to my mind images
of ancient and historical traditions
...’, and adds as an afterthought
‘The beer was good too!’. This is
lively, entertaining stuff.
Leonard Bernstein’s
tiny ‘Dance Suite’ is particularly
interesting as it was the composer’s
very last published work, being composed
in 1990 for the 50th Anniversary
Gala of the American Ballet Theater.
Each of the miniature movements –
the longest is just 2:06 - is dedicated
to a distinguished choreographer.
The finale, for example, with its
wonderfully raunchy central episode,
is for Jerome Robbins, and has a delightful
throwaway ending – the typically tongue-in-cheek
last words (or notes) of one of the
towering figures of 20th
century music.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Center City Brass Quintet 
