This selection is also available on Walking Frog (distribution) 265.
This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

This selection is also available on Walking Frog (distribution) 266.

Since its founding in 1985, the Dallas Wind Symphony, led by Artistic Director and Conductor Jerry Junkin, has become one of the world’s top professional wind ensembles, providing a standard against which other bands measure excellence. Soaring lyricism, especially in the solo trumpet part, characterizes each of the three richly scored lyrical sections of Fisher Tull’s Rhapsody for Trumpet and Band (1980), which surround two faster, more technically demanding portions of the work. Harry Begian (1921-2010) created the transcription of the first movement of Reinhold Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano for a 1983 University of Illinois Symphonic Band concert. The movement is characteristically Russian, full of long, brooding phrases juxtaposed against upwardly spinning melodies. Receiving its world premiere recording, Brett William Dietz’s Redshift is full of color, contrast and fast-paced drama. The work contains a great amount of interplay between the trumpet soloist and ensemble, and prominently features the percussion section. Two additional works, Rachmaninov’s Vocalise and a second by Fisher Tull (Concerto No. 2 for Trumpet and Band), round out this disc.

This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

The Dallas Wind Symphony and the Jim Cullum Jazz Band team up on a new world premiere sonic spectacular! Composer Frank Ticheli’s works have become standards in concert band repertoire, and Playing With Fire weaves in enthusiastic playing by the famed Jim Cullum Jazz Band. All wind music and traditional jazz enthusiasts should have these knockout performances, conducted by Jerry Junkin. Recorded in the Meyerson Symphony Center, the great music is perfectly captured by Reference Recordings’ world-renowned team of engineer Keith Johnson and producer Tam Henderson.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Conductor: Jerry Junkin. Soloist: Mary Preston.

This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

"Fennell catches cool dance rhythms, delicate neatness, and British propriety very nicely. The Dallas Wind Symphony and the engineering are terrific, and Fennell's liner notes are literate, informative and personal." -- Gil French, CITY (Rochester, NY)

"Perhaps most remarkable is the absolute rightness of his tempo choices: One can't imagine one of these marches going even the slightest bit slower or faster. The Dallas ensemble plays superbly and the sound is phenomenal. We get the immediacuy and visceral excitement of Fennell's Mercury recordings, the weight and atmosphere of the Cleveland Symphonic Wind performances on Telarc, plus a level of detail and ease of presentation that's state-of-the-art." -- Andrew Quint, THE ABSOLUTE SOUND

If you are a lover of Christmas music—carols, popular songs, and all manner of medleys and clever arrangements of such—and you miss this extraordinary recording by the first-rate Dallas Wind Symphony, then your holiday listening stands to be just a bit more dull, less festive, and more ordinary than it could have been. This is a terrific program, in exemplary sound, that not only celebrates the Christmas music tradition but exemplifies the best of the wind ensemble genre, with its unique sonorities and long tradition of both originality and sense of playfulness and humor on the part of composers and arrangers.

The program opens with the obligatory fanfare—suitably titled Festival Fanfare—a nifty arrangement by John Wasson commissioned by the Dallas Wind Symphony, not surprisingly a showpiece for horns, full of familiar Christmas tunes. A decent but kinda square Sleigh Ride follows, along with a straightforward arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring that beautifully exhibits the colors and rich textures of a first-rate wind band.

Among the highlights: my favorite, a celebration of the much-maligned minor mode—DWS saxophonist David Lovrien’s Minor Alterations: Christmas Through the Looking Glass, a “recasting” of favorite Christmas songs and carols (and even snippets of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker combined with Deck the Hall!) into a wonderful medley of minor-key madness (along with some melodic and rhythmic twists) that definitely calls for repeated listening. Another standout is The Christmas Song, with its fine alto sax solo by Donald Fabian, swingingly accompanied by the ensemble.

The big “classical” work is an arrangement simply called Russian Christmas Music, which apparently draws its sources from “Russian folk and Eastern Orthodox church music”. At almost 14 minutes, it’s by far the program’s most substantial entry, and it does show a wider range of technical virtuosity and different aspect of interpretive awareness than required in most of the other works, even if Alfred Reed’s arrangement begins to seem a bit long for the material after about 10 minutes. Never mind; any drift of attention is quickly recalled front and center with the concluding Christmas And Sousa Forever—the title giving away the concept. Wait until you hear how arranger Julie Giroux juxtaposes excerpts from such Christmas favorites as Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with The Stars and Stripes Forever (and a couple of other marches)—not to mention the way she accompanies Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with that famous piccolo solo! It’s tempting to use that well-worn line, “if you buy only one Christmas CD this season, this one should be it”—but I won’t; I’ll just say that if by chance it is the only one, you won’t be disappointed.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

There is no shortage of recordings dedicated to Percy Grainger's music for wind band, and this one stands with the finest of them. It's also better recorded than most--much better. The sheer sonority of the winds and brass that Reference Recordings has captured is stunning. Trombones and tuba in particular have an unforgettable physical impact, making the big moments in Lincolnshire Posy, The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare, or The Gum-Suckers March all but overwhelming. Under Jerry Junkin's leadership, the Dallas Wind Symphony plays with its usual ebullience and expertise. I particularly enjoyed Molly on the Shore and Spoon River, while adding the choral parts to Children's March and After-Word provides a welcome touch of contrast and variety. No doubt about it, this is a terrific disc that Grainger fans and band music collectors should snap up without delay.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Includes liner notes by Frederick Fennell.
This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

This selection is also available on Walking Frog (distribution) 267.
This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.