Keith Brion - On Stage - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In 1980 the question InchWhere is Sousa's audience today?Inch gave rise to Keith Brion 's Sousa orchestral concerts. Brion reasoned that in modern America, Sousa's most natural audience was now attending symphony orchestra pops concerts rather than band performances. Next wondering if a symphony orchestra could perform a band concert, he recalled that Sousa had scored more than eighty of his major band compositions for orchestra. In addition, most of the other music used by Sousa was really orchestral music transcribed for band. So Brion's InchSousa at the SymphonyInch concerts were born. For almost two decades now these programs have been a flourishing attraction on the large circuit of American symphony orchestras that present InchpopsInch concerts. Dozens of orchestras have presented them three times or more. This recording features many of the favorite items heard on these popular concerts. The Overture to the Irish Dragoon and Nymphalin are performed in their original settings. The two humoresques and Song of Grace and Songs of Glory are performed in arrangements by Keith Brion. The marches have been enlarged by Brion from their original Sousa versions (for small theatre orchestra) to full symphony orchestra status. The model for these adaptations has been Sousa's own unpublished concert arrangements for his large symphonic band. Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), the oldest symphonic ensemble in Slovakia, was founded in 1929 at the instance of Milos Ruppeldt and Oskar Nedbal, prominent personalities in the sphere of music. Ondrej Lenard was appointed it's conductor in 1970 and in 1977 it's conductor-in-chief, succeeded recently by Robert Stankovsky. The orchestra has given successful concerts both at home and abroad, in Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Hong Kong and Japan. For

The wonderful Naxos American Classics series is full of surprises. After firmly associating Victor Herbert with memorable melodies based on banal lyrics, we now get Columbus Suite/ Irish Rhapsody played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) under Keith Brion. The opening InchAuditorium Festival MarchInch is pure Sousa out of Germany where Herbert learned his craft, while the InchIrish RhapsodyInch recalls the more familiar tunes from his land of birth. The third cut gives us a quarter hour of selections from his opera InchNatoma,Inch and very impressive they are. But the real surprise comes on cuts 4-7 where we hear, probably for the first time, his InchColumbus SuiteInch in four movements Dawn and Sunrise at Alhambra, At La Rabida, Murmurs of the Sea, and Triumph-the Vision of Columbus.

John Philip Sousa's swift rise to fame and greatness came at a time when band concerts were the most important aspect of musical life in the U.S. The works on this recording range from the early Revival March of 1876 and the stirring Right Forward March from Sousa's time as conductor of the U.S. Marine band, to the Inchup-to-dateInch 1920's fox-trot Peaches and Cream and the 1923 Leaves from My Notebook, dedicated to the Campfire Girls of America. Music from Sousa's operetta Chris and the Wonderful Lamp can be found alongside his medley of tunes from Gilbert and Sullivan's the Mikado, which includes many of the hit tunes from this operetta, while the Honored Dead was performed at President Ulysses S. Grant's funeral.