Brass Quintet in a National Park

GTMF musicians recorded a special Performance Today segment with Fred Child for the National Park Service's Centennial, entitled Music in the Parks. We'll share more on this soon! #GTMF2016 #PerformanceToday #GrandTetons

A photo posted by Grand Teton Music Festival (@grandtetonmusic) on Aug 17, 2016 at 11:38am PDT

The Grand Teton Music Festival recently wrapped up. Some fine folks made a recording for Performance Today. The recording was made out in the middle of Grand Teton National Park. This really makes the video version required to enjoy the amazing scenery. 

The quintet includes:

Trumpet: Thomas Hooten, Jennifer Marotta

Horn: Gail Williams

Trombone: Michael Mulcahy

Tuba: Craig Knox

The performance is two movements from John Stevens' Seasons Quintet. Performing movements names Summer and Autumn seems appropriate given the setting here. The group, as expected, is a pleasure to listen to. Enjoy!

What else would you like to see performed in a national park? Tell us in the comments. 

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Robert Nagel: 1924-2016

It's a generally held belief that the String Quartet began around Haydn's time. Haydn began putting together works for this now accepted combination of instruments. What is now common, was not in that day. We don't know who the first violinist was in performances of Haydn's early works. Imagine that they worked tirelessly to spread the word about this new form of chamber music. That person no doubt laid down the earliest roots that grew into chamber music for the now mainstay String Quartet. As this person was to the String Quartet, Robert Nagel was to the Brass Quintet. 

Robert Nagel did everything that anyone could to will a new medium of chamber music into existence. It would have iconic by itself to have formed the New York Brass Quintet in 1950s and begin bringing brass chamber music to audiences. This alone, would have made the man a pioneer. He went so far beyond this. 

Nagel was also prolific as a soloist and freelancer. Our personal favorite is his early 1960s recording of Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 with Pablo Casals. It has influenced many ever since who have struggled to sound as effortless as Nagel did on this recording. He also made time to perform with Bernstein and Igor Stravinsky. 

Nagel went beyond performing and exerted tremendous influence on composition. He did this firsthand with arranging and composing. His sphere of influence went beyond by being a constant emissary to those composing for the brass quintet for the first time. The massive rise of literature for the brass quintet can be directly traced his tireless advocacy. 

Nagel also passed along his craft through teaching at Yale, Juilliard, and a number of other institutions. He was also a founding member of the International Trumpet Guild. 

In a single man's lifetime, he was able to begin a movement and see it take hold in a meaningful way. That movement has affected us all in a meaningful way. 

What is now common, was not in that day. Thank Robert Nagel for that. 

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Perfect Landing from the Canadian Brass

Perfect Landing

By Canadian Brass

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The Canadian Brass have a new recording out called Perfect Landing. From the liner notes:

“To effect a perfect landing all systems must be operating at one hundred percent efficiency - and that is where Canadian Brass finds itself today. Leaders in the chamber music world once only enjoyed by the finest string quartets, the Canadian Brass routinely meets receptive audiences more typically witnessed in pop culture - this disc represents the perfect landing of this entire Canadian Brass community.”

There's some old favorites the group recorded before like some Luther Henderson and Arthur Frackenpohl arrangements. There's also some new material like the original piece from Caleb Hudson called White Rose. There's no specific theme behind the album which includes everything from Bach fugue to Spanish march to Hebrew liturgy. The album is certainly worth a listen. 

Will you be picking up this album? Let us know in the comments. 

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The Boston Brass play Summertime from Porgy and Bess

This is a great performance of the Boston Brass playing Summertime at the World Band Festival in Luzern earlier this month. Enjoy this arrangement, it's a good one. 

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