New CD Featuring the Music of Bramwell Tovey

World of Brass has announced the upcoming release of Maestro, featuring the music of Bramwell Tovey. The disc features Tovey as conductor and pianist, with the Foden’s Band, trombonist Joseph Alessi and violinist Mark Fewer.

Bramwell Tovey is a musician of striking versatility, acknowledged around the world for his artistic depth and his warm, charismatic personality on the podium. Tovey’s career as a conductor is uniquely enhanced by his work as a composer and pianist, lending him a remarkable musical perspective.

His enduring partnership with Foden’s Band has proved fruitful in every way. Concerts, appearances at major music festivals, competitions and recordings (including the 2008 release on the NMC label, New Music for Brass Band) have all received critical and award-winning acclaim and reinforce this idyllic and exciting marriage between a wonderful brass band and the maestro, Bramwell Tovey.

A new recording, Maestro, on the Egon label features Mr. Tovey not only as composer and conductor but also as piano soloist in Pictures in the Smoke.

Over the past few years, Tovey has been writing a series of substantial works for soloists with brass band. Nine Daies Wonder is the most unusual of them all as the solo instrument is a violin. The music is based on Will Kemp’s famous journey from London to Norwich in which he danced the whole way in nine days. The soloist, Mark Fewer, recites lines from Shakespeare during the work and he and the band are also called upon to sing.

The Lincoln Tunnel Cabaret was written for Joseph Alessi’s appearance as guest soloist with the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. The listener might imagine that Joe, who commutes daily from New Jersey to Manhattan in a stylish open-top sports car, gets stuck in traffic at the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel and decides to get out his trombone and entertain the disgruntled drivers. In New York, anything can happen!

Pictures in the Smoke was inspired by Dorothy Parker’s hilarious poem of the same name. Dealing with the issues of dating and falling in love, the music consists of contrasting episodes centred on the piano as the only constant factor. The interval of a falling minor 3rd, later becoming more of a collapsing 5th, provides the main musical ingredient from which it can be deduced that some of Ms Parker’s experiences were less than epic!

The remaining works on this recording are for brass band alone, from the major concert and competition work, Coventry Variations to the miniatures Toccata and St. Norbert Chorale.

The official launch of the recording is Friday, 1 May 2009, but the CD is now in stock and available to order for pre-launch delivery. The recording will, hopefully, be available as a download from World of Brass Tunes on 1 May 2009.

Follow this link for more information: www.worldofbrass.eu/acatalog/25030.html