Search - Wallace Collection, Wright :: Venetian Brass Music

World's Best Brass Album

Patrick A Daley | Fredericton, New Brunswick | 04/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Most of the pieces are composed by Giovanni Gabrieli, but Andrea Gabrieli, Viadana, and Frescobaldi are also represented. The instrumentation is trumpets and trombones, although violins may have been added sometimes in Gabrieli's time. A number of them are for two brass choirs, and the last one, Giovianni Gabrieli's gorgeous Sonata XX is performed by five brass choirs. If one uses an Ambisonic decoder (Ambisonic is a multi-channel format using a single point microphone), I presume the sound would be spectacular, but it is certainly superb in stereo. The Wallace Collection was founded by John Wallace, who is himself quite a trumpet virtuoso. They made a series of fine brass recordings for the Nimbus label, and now that Nimbus has gone under, they are fortunately available on the Wallace Collection label. Wallace and The Wallace Collection have also done a number of very fine brass concerto recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra, again always played with a marvelous sense of style. The recording quality is always at least very good, often excellent, very spacious and with lots of ambience even in stereo, as one would expect with Ambisonic recordings. This CD is my favorite of them all. A number of excellent brass groups have recorded some of the same material by the Gabrieli's and other Renaissance composers, including The Canadian Brass (which has done some of the same sort of material with brass of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Berlin Philharmonic), The Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, Edward Tarr Brass Ensemble, London Symphony Brass, and so on. None I have heard seems to have the same verve and sense of style. In this material, anyway, The Wallace Collection under conductor Simon Wright, simply plays rings around them. The performances are uniformly idiomatic, well accented and never dull.This is a really enjoyable disc, lots of fun, and played at lower levels, it also can be very relaxing. P. S.I don't really know if it is the World's Best Brass Recording, but it's the best I have ever heard. The performance and the sound are both wonderful."

Gabrieli's Music for Brass Superbly Performed

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 09/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The spiritual thrill of hearing antiphonal music in Venice's St. Mark's cathedral was once a delight afforded only a few lucky visitors to Venice. With this absolutely superb recording that pleasure is now available to all. The works of this aptly titled CD, VENETIAN BRASS MUSIC, are primarily those of Giovanni Gabrieli whose stature among music historians is the gold standard for this musical form. But in addition to Gabrieli there are works by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Lodovico Viadana, and Andrea Gabrieli, each of which is well worth inclusion.



The performances are by The Wallace Collection, featuring trumpeter John Wallace, as led by Simon Wright. While there are numerous recordings of music for brass instruments by some very fine ensembles, this recording seems to capture the ambience and the spirit of the music better than all the rest. The works range from rather simple (4 parts) to extremely complex works (for 8, 10, 12, 22 parts!). And the glory of this selection of pieces is that they never sound repetitive. This is a recording worthy of the highest praise and as fine a recital (in as fine a hall!) as is available on recordings. Very highly recommended. Grady Harp, September 05"