Street Song – Center City Brass Quintet CHAN 10260 [GPJ]: Classical CD Reviews- September 2005 MusicWeb-International

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 50^th 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 20^th century music.

Gwyn Parry-Jones


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