The Glorious Sound of Brass: Renaissance & Baroque Masterpieces

William Brade (Composer), Aurelio Bonelli (Composer), Johann Chistoph Pezel (Composer), Orlande de Lassus (Composer), Gottfried Reiche (Composer), Antony Holborne (Composer), Jeremiah Clarke (Composer), George Frederick Handel (Composer), William Croft (Composer), Henry Purcell (Composer), Georg Philipp Telemann (Composer), E. Power Biggs (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: E. Power Biggs
• Composer: William Brade, Aurelio Bonelli, Johann Chistoph Pezel, Orlande de Lassus, Gottfried Reiche, et al.
• Audio CD (July 1, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000029X0
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,036 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #58 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Odes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine, clean performance, December 7, 1999

By 

Paris Guffey (New Orleans, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Glorious Sound of Brass: Renaissance & Baroque Masterpieces (Audio CD)

I bought this CD for track 13. Providebam Dominum by Lassus, and, while that track is a bit of a letdown, the rest of the CD is superb.

This CD offers a range of brass music composed in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The performance is very clean as far as intonation as well as phrasing and dynamics.

This is a remastering of a 1960's performance, although you can't tell that just by lsitening, as it is free from noise, pops, and hiss. The liner notes weren't updated since the original recording (they attribute the Trumpet Tune to Purcell and not Clark, as it has been discovered recently), but that's not much of a concern, as the recording pretty much speaks for itself.

I was very happy to find a brass recording of Providebam Dominum, but I was a little disappointed by the recording on this CD. Overall, the song is played beautifully and gracefully. However, toward the end of the song there are accented notes that I feel are unnecessarily harsh. The three or four blatted notes in this track is the only blemish on this otherwise great CD.

The rest of the tracks, however, are played very nicely and without any unusually harsh notes. The Purcell/Clark Trumpet Tunes are played especially well, and the addition of the organ for a few tracks is a nice touch.

All in all, this is a great CD, and worthy of any brass music collection. It's not as refined or stylistic as some of the Canadian Brass recordings, but it offers a great deal to the early brass music enthusiast.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Philadephia Brass BAD. New England Brass GOOD., January 16, 2004

By 

Percy Smogg (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Glorious Sound of Brass: Renaissance & Baroque Masterpieces (Audio CD)

This CD is a combination of two recording sessions. The 1966 recording of the Philadelphia Brass rates maybe two stars. Not only does the recording itself have a dry, studio sound to it, but the performance of the Philadelphia Brass cannot be recommended. They stomp their way through the loud parts; and the expressive parts are done in a perfunctory manner. It all has a real mechanical, connect-the-dots feel to it. There is a significant amount of imprecision in the attacks. Without checking the original scores I can't say for sure, but I'm thinking that some pieces were transposed into more comfortable keys.

The 1962 recording of the New England Brass is vastly superior. It's a good recording technically (considering the year -- certainly better than the 1966 recording) and a good performance that I'll rate four stars; so the whole CD averages out to three stars. The New England Brass deliver elegant high notes, spirit, and artistic expressiveness that are missing in the Philadelphia boys. This might explain why they are featured second on the CD: Save the best for last! If you are a real stickler for accuracy in Historically Informed Performance (based on whatever definition happens to be in style these days), you might find a few things to criticize. But hey! This was 1962. Cut 'em a little slack and enjoy the show.

Since this is a budget price, I would suggest you look at it this way: You're paying a budget price, so you can ignore in good economic conscience the mediocre part of the CD done by the Philadelphia group and enjoy the part done by the New England group without feeling like you wasted any money.