Album

Reinhold Friedrich (the album's rather geeky title refers to the quintet-plus-soloist configuration of much of the music) reverses the usual order of things, beginning with the thorniest contemporary work and proceeding to Renaissance sounds (albeit filtered through contemporary ears), Romanticism, and jazz (which comes in a pretty thorny variety itself here). Among the surprises are how well the group of three pieces from Respighi's Antiche Danze ed Arie work in the small-scale brass quintet format; the arrangements are skillfully done in such a way as to make the music seem as if it's advancing another step toward its own roots. The opening contemporary piece by Icelandic composer Áskell Másson, a concerto for solo trumpet and brass quintet, is claimed to set the soloist against "colors" and "images of the past," with "differing and manifold shadows flickering" around the soloist, but these effects may be rather difficult for the listener to divine. The Brass Sextet in E flat minor, Op. 30, of German-Russian composer Oskar Böhme (1870-1938), is a nice find; however, a conservative work with a low, gentle sound resulting from its unusual original instrumentation of cornet, two trumpets, bass trumpet, bassoon, and tuba, here it is condensed to a more normal brass quintet, but the low sound remains. Another German abroad is contemporary brass writer Daniel Schnyder, who has moved to New York and attempted to carry jazz-classical fusion forward after its period of dormancy. His three pieces from his Little Songbook for soloist and brass quintet make a lighthearted finale after the composer's more involved Brass Quintet, which uses submerged Latin rhythms as a means of connecting the really rather distant languages of modern jazz and contemporary classical music. The Mannheim Brass Quintet handles all these varied musical languages with aplomb, including the jazz-playing techniques in the Schnyder pieces, and it offers a strong collection of unfamiliar music (even the Respighi is unfamiliar in this context) that will impress itself on your memory in these renditions. Coviello's hybrid SACD sound is superb.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1
Askell Masson Composer Shadows, concerto for trumpet & brass quintet Work 13:13 Reinhold Friedrich Trumpet, Mannheim Brass Quintett Brass Ensemble
1	1.Andante moderato	5:51			$0.99
2	2.Lento	3:23			$0.99
3	3.Comodo ma deciso - Allegro	3:59			$0.99
Ottorino Respighi Composer Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.1, P.109...Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.1, P.109 (arr. brass quintet) Work Mannheim Brass Quintett Brass Ensemble
4	4.Passo mezzo e mascherada	3:44			$0.99
Ottorino Respighi Composer Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.3, P.172...Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.3, P.172 (arr. brass quintet) Work Mannheim Brass Quintett Brass Ensemble
5	2.Arie di Corte	6:38			$0.99
Ottorino Respighi Composer Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.2, P.138...Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.2, P.138 (arr. brass quintet) Work Mannheim Brass Quintett Brass Ensemble
6	4.Bergamasca	4:55			$0.99
Oskar Böhme Composer Trumpet Sextet for 3 trumpets, bass trumpet, trombone & tenor tuba in Eb-, Op.30 Work 15:03 Reinhold Friedrich Cornet, Mannheim Brass Quintett Brass Ensemble
7	1.Adagio ma non tanto - Allegro molto	5:05			$0.99
8	2.Scherzo. Allegro vivace - Un poco meno mosso	2:20			$0.99
9	3.Andante cantabile	4:01			$0.99
10	4.Allegro con spirito	3:37			$0.99
Daniel Schnyder Composer Brass Quintet Work 11:23 Mannheim Brass Quintett Brass Ensemble
11	1.Ardito	2:03			$0.99
12	2.Lento / tempo rubato	3:21			$0.99
13	3.Prestissimo	1:04			$0.99
14	4.Ricercar	2:18			$0.99
15	5.Lento / tempo rubato - Scherzando	2:37			$0.99
Daniel Schnyder Composer Little Songbook, suite for soloist & brass quintet Work 8:01 Reinhold Friedrich Trumpet, Mannheim Brass Quintett Brass Ensemble
16	Bananas	2:10			$0.99
17	A Love Affair	4:21			$0.99
18	Catch Me	1:30			$0.99