“This is a highly polished modern brass quintet playing Renaissance arrangements with solemn precision and occasional dancing exuberance. The recorded sound’s terrific and the project is well-documented” --MusicWeb International, 6th June 2013
The brass quintet as we know it is a modern constellation, but ensembles of wind instruments, involving shawms and sackbuts, were a staple before the Renaissance had even begun. Arrangements of music of this kind still form an important part of the repertoire of most brass ensembles, including Stockholm Chamber Brass. Having earned international recognition for their several recordings of resolutely contemporary works, the five members here return to their roots, in a varied programme.
“The Stockholm Chamber Brass here presents a well-played program of Renaissance music arranged for modern brass, with the pluses and caveats that implies. The music’s fantastic and very well-selected: Susato, Dowland, Monteverdi, Gesualdo. The program itself smartly combines these, moving from lively dances and martial airs to arias and slow works of great beauty. Many tracks add percussion to the mix. The Monteverdi ‘moresca’ (track 25) is irresistible. The brass ensemble plays marvelously throughout, especially in slower, more introspective selections. Only the very first track, ‘La Spagna’, features a trombone solo that I think sounds hurried. Thoughtfully, one trumpet is on the far left and the other on the far right, and even more thoughtfully, the booklet tells you who’s who. This is a highly polished modern brass quintet playing Renaissance arrangements with solemn precision and occasional dancing exuberance. The recorded sound’s terrific and the project is well-documented” --MusicWeb International, June 2013
