Canadian Brass - Super Hits - Music & Performance - CD

The Canadian Brass is an exemplary brass quintet (two trumpets, French horn, trombone, euphonium/tuba) formed in 1970 when there was no other touring, self-contained brass quintet. Informed with a sense of humor and eclecticism along with considerable expertise, the Canadian Brass became a premier performing ensemble, with many works commission for them.

This HITS collection presents them performing several classical and pop evergreens, arranged and performed with such zest that it often sounds as if these pieces were written for brass. Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro' Overture is given a sumptuous, driving baroque treatment, and their stark, yearning interpretation of Paul Simon's "Scarborough Fair" delicately accents its Renaissance origins while giving it a "MacArthur Park" deportment.

The Brass' rich, sonorous reading of Gabrielli's geometric, spatial "Canzoni" sounds positively, regally orchestral. As a bonus, on two tracks the Canadian Brass is joined by another quintet, the Berlin Philharmonic Brass.