The English Quintet
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Chameleon Brass present a programme of the finest original quintets from English composers.
Programme; 'Quintet' - Sir Malcolm Arnold (13min) 'Quintet for Brass' - Gordon Langford (9mins) 'Musical Hall Suite' - Joseph Horovitz (10mins) 'Chanson de Martin' - Sir Edward Elgar (6mins) |
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Sir Malcolm Arnold's Quintet for Brass remains one of his most widely played chamber works and is one of the absolute classics of the genre. It established the instrumentation two trumpets, French horn, trombone and tube as the standard brass quintet. The writing for brass is idiomatic yet ultimately challenging, there is always an element of danger in the writing. The writing for tuba is especially ahead of its time, and at its premier, would have been within the grasp of very few players in the world. The piece was written for the New York Brass Quintet, the group which at that time was laying down the standard for the rest of the world to emulate, and had immediate impact and success.
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Born in Edgware, Middlesex, in May 1930 Gordon Coleman was a precocious child, beginning piano lessons aged five. At nine, one of his compositions received a public performance and he later went on to win a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano and composition with Norman Demuth. It was Demuth, his professor of composition, who suggested that he should change his surname or use apseudonym. Hence, he changed his name to become Gordon Langford.In 1951, during his army service, he made his first BBC broadcast as a solo pianist with the Royal Artillery Band, which he was also a member. For many years he worked with seaside orchestras, a touring opera company and as a ship's musician. During the 1960s he was featured extensivley as a pianist, arranger and composer on the BBC.
In 2011 he was nominated for Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music His 'Quintet for Brass' is as yet unpublished. |
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Joseph Horovitz was born in Vienna in 1926 and emigrated to England in 1938. He studied music at New College, Oxford, while acting as an official lecturer in music appreciation to the Forces and giving piano recitals in army camps. After taking his BMus and MA degrees, he studied composition with Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music, where he won the Farrar Prize, and for a further year with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His first post was as music director of the Bristol Old Vic, where he composed, arranged and conducted the incidental music for two seasons. The Festival of Britain in 1951 brought him to London as conductor of ballet and concerts at the Festival Amphitheatre. The 'Music Hall Suite' was composed in 1964 at the request of the well known American tuba player Roger Bobo. It was soon taken into the repertoire of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, who gave the first BBC broadcast. The first recording was on Pye records, by the Hallé Brass Ensemble. Since then it has become a regular repertoire piece and recorded as well as broadcast all over the world. |
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