Handel / Septura Music For Brass Septet 2 CD

This second volume of Septura's Brass Chamber Music Series (Vol. 1 Being Available on Naxos 8.573314) takes us back to the 17th C. and the music of Baroque Opera, in four contrasting works by Rameau, Blow, Purcell and Handel. The astounding variety in content, color and character of the originals demands especially inventive arrangements, and these pieces are vividly brought to life by incorporating stylistic elements from 'Period Performance'. The exhilarating result is a stunningly virtuosic set of new Baroque works for brass. Each volume of this projected ten-volume set will focus on a particular period, genre and set of composers, creating a 'counter-factual history' of Brass Chamber Music. Septura aims to redefine the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium by creating a canon of brass septet classical art-music through transcriptions, arrangements and an ever-increasing number of new commissions. Septura's members, the leading players of the new generation of British brass musicians, all hold principal positions in today's most preeminent British orchestras. Uplifting debut from a magnificent seven... all ace musicians, as this stirring, thoughtful debut CD for Naxos confirms. (The Observer, on Vol. 1)

1. Ouverture 2. Menuet 3. Marche Pour Les Differentes Nations 4. Entree D'iphise 5. Entree Pour Les Guerriers 6. Sommeil de Dardanus 7. Tambourin 8. Chorus of the Graces 9. The Graces' Dance 10. Gavatt 11. Sarabande for the Graces 12. A Ground 13. Act III: Act Tune 14. Aria: With Solemn Pomp Let Mourning Cupids Bear 15. Chorus: Mourn for Thy Servant 16. Overture 17. Hornpipe I 18. Slow Air 19. Air 20. Hornpipe II 21. Jig 22. Trumpet Air 23. March 24. Hornpipe on a Ground 25. Overture 26. Sibilar Gli Angui D'aletto 27. Il Vostro Maggio De' Bei Verdi Anni 28. Sinfonia 29. March 30. Lascia Ch'io Pianga