VERY BRITISH
•
Wes10 Brass
•
ARS
PRODUKTION
38 066 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 54:53)
BYRD
Earl of Oxford’s March.
PREMRU
Divertimento
(selections).
LANGFORD
London Miniature.
TRAD
(arr. Iveson)
Londonderry Air.
J. PARKER
A Londoner in New York
(Part 2).
LED ZEPPELIN
(arr. Collings)
Stairway to Heaven.
ELGAR
Enigma Variations:
Nimrod
The curiously named Wes10 (pronounced “wes-ten”) Brass is a 10-member ensemble based in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia area, but makes its recording debut with an English program much in the style of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble (which, indeed, released complete versions of this disc’s Jim Parker and Gordon Langford works some 25 years ago on Claves). Wes10 is a sonorous group, especially on the deep end, and quite nimble in the fast passagework, as in the opening William Byrd piece (arranged by ubiquitous British bandsman Elgar Howarth, a Philip Jones veteran). The group’s intensity can flag a little in the slow movements of Ray Premru’s Divertimento (the slow parts are the weakest sections of this score, anyway), but the ensemble members are on their toes the rest of the time. Germans are not noted for their sense of humor, but these players certainly can step lightly through a whimsical piece like the “Radio City” movement of Parker’s
A Londoner in New York
, and John Iveson’s arrangement of the
Londonderry Air
is initially full of tipsy slides, as at closing time at an Irish pub. Surprisingly, the rock standard
Stairway to Heaven
works very well in this arrangement by Bruce Collings—better, actually, than do Ray Premru’s slow movements on their own. The one small comedown is the program closer, Elgar’s “Nimrod” Variation, which here is a little matter-of-fact; it could benefit from a slightly slower tempo and greater dynamic range. All in all, though, this is a very well-played program of light British music, enjoying clarion-clear, distortion-free DSD 5.1 sonics.
James Reel
