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When I was an undergraduate trombone major in the early 1970s, my friends and I could name every member of the Chicago Symphony’s brass section the way other guys could rattle off the starting lineup of the Oakland A’s. These musicians were the royalty of orchestral brass players. They remain so today. There’s a unique density to their sound combined with unanimity of attack and release, breath support, and a half dozen other parameters that result in a sense of limitless power in reserve. On this new release the CSO brass play sensational arrangements of familiar music by six composers. We hear three pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli as well as an exciting adaptation of Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. There’s a rousing performance of Walton’s Crown Imperial March, the brass players joined here, as for most of the program, by several percussionists. Also programmed are a transcription of Percy Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy, Sensemayà by Silvestre Revueltas, and three movements of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, culminating in an overwhelming realization of “The Death of Tybalt.” CSO Resound’s recording from Symphony Hall is dynamic and tonally vibrant. The multichannel version is conservatively executed, adding just a bit more dimensionality.
By Andrew Quint
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