Notes and Editorial Reviews
The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in its heyday was without peer, as these performances confirm. None of the pieces they play would rank as a blazing masterpiece, but all are recorded to advantage in sound which brings out the music's many felicities.
-- Terry Barfoot, MusicWeb International [1/2002]
reviewing the Bliss works, also reissued as part of Decca 470186
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The Quintet for Brass Op.73 (1961), actually Arnold’s first brass quintet (the Brass Quintet No.2 Op.132 was completed in 1987 and is, to the best of my knowledge, still unrecorded and rarely heard), is also a very popular work that has received many performances
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and many fine recordings. Arnold’s unerring flair for brass instruments is fully displayed in this attractive piece. Has anyone noticed that the slow movement seems to pay some homage to Holst’s band piece Hammersmith?
However, the substantial Symphony for Brass Instruments Op.123 (1978), written for Philip Jones’ fiftieth birthday, is a quite different piece of music. One might have expected some brilliant display of brass writing, full of Arnold’s hallmarks; but the Symphony for Brass is actually a sombre, bleak work and clearly the product of what has been one of Arnold’s most difficult periods. Though still superbly written for brass ensemble, the music, while still recognisably by Arnold, eschews many easy-way-out solutions. It rather evokes a difficult journey that would reach its ultimate goal in the bleak, unremitting, uncompromising Ninth Symphony. The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble play wonderfully as they also do in the Brass Quintet.
-- Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International
reviewing the Arnold works, also reissued as part of Decca 468803
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Works on This Recording
4.
The eagle has two heads: Fanfare by Benjamin Britten
Conductor:
Elgar Howarth
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1946; England
6.
Fanfare for St Edmundsbury by Benjamin Britten
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1959; England
7.
Symphony for Brass, Op. 123 by Malcolm Arnold
Conductor:
Howard Snell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1978; England
8.
Fanfare for Brass by Michael Tippett
Conductor:
Howard Snell
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Written: by 1971; England
11.
The Cenci: Fanfare by Havergal Brian
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1951-1952; England
12.
Prelude and Fugue "Spitfire" by Sir William Walton
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1942; England
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