Shadow of Sirius / Junkin, Gedigian, University of Texas Wind Ensemble [Blu-ray]
Naxos AudioVisual
Blu-Ray
$16.99Oct 09, 2015
Since its international début in 1991, The University of Texas Wind Ensemble has built a reputation for innovative programming. They perform three highly virtuosic and expressive works conceived to give the listener a surround sound experience in the concert hall, recreated on this recording in stunning 5.1. Steven Bryant’s Concerto for Wind Ensemble places three groups of players around the audience while Joel Puckett’s Shadow of Sirius envelops the audience with a spatial arrangement of flutists. In the second movement of John Mackey’s Kingfishers Catch Fire antiphonal trumpets are staged behind the audience to conjure up this magnificent bird flying triumphantly into the sunlight.
What Dreams May Come features music spanning more than a century, beginning with Gustav Holst's Suite No. 1 in E Flat, composed in 1909, and ending with Omar Thomas's Come Sunday that premiered in 2018. Also included are Steven Bryant's Suite Dreams, first performed in 2007, and David Maslanka's A Child's Garden of Dreams, described by the composer as "a symphonic suite for one-on-a-part wind ensemble."
The theme of the album "The Lovers" by the Duo Edlbauer Kuzo (Andrea Edlbauer, saxophone and Oksana Kuzo, piano) revolves around love, lovers, and the relationships between people-the states in which we live together and alone. The music transports listeners into various emotional moods and allows them to experience a diversity of feelings and forms of expression. This album features a combination of works already cherished by connoisseurs of the saxophone-piano repertoire, such as Robert Muczynski's sonata or Astor Piazzolla's "Grand Tango" in an arrangement for saxophone and piano, as well as completely new pieces composed for the duo. These new works are characterized by a musical language that touches immediately and captures listeners' hearts, such as "The Moment You Lost Your Love" by the young Austrian composer Viola Hammer, the atmospheric music "Monody" by Austria-based composer Theodor Burkali, and the passionate, temperamental, and multifaceted title work "The Lovers" by American composer Steve Bryant. Also featured are the Three Bagatelles for Piano by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov and the Cantilena by Theodor Burkali.