The Magic of Malcolm Arnold Vol. 1

Description

New Release – Double CD

A double CD set which brings together a first volume of Malcolm Arnold’s exquisite music for brass.  Performances from The Wallace Collection, the soloist winners of the 2016 Malcolm Arnold Fantasy Competition (presented by The Wallace Collection) and The National Youth Brass Band of Scotland (senior band).

This double-disc release includes a 16 page information booklet and offers a wonderfully diverse collection of works from this great composer, performed by some of the finest brass musicians of today and tomorrow.

Performed by:
The Wallace Collection

Winners of the Malcolm Arnold Fantasy Competition:

• Stuart Beard (Tuba)
• Benedict Vernon (Trombone)
• Michael Gibbs (Horn)
• Illiam Quane (Trumpet)

The National Youth Brass Bands of Scotland (Senior Band)

Playlist – Disc One:

• Symphony for Brass*
• Quintet No. 1*
• Quintet No. 2*
• Fantasy for Tuba
• Fantasy for Trombone
• Fantasy for Horn
• Fantasy for Trumpet

Playlist – Disc Two:

• Fantasy for Brass Band**
• Little Suite for Brass Band No. 1**
• Little Suite for Brass Band No. 2**
• Little Suite for Brass Band No. 3**
• The Padstow Lifeboat**

*The Wallace Collection
**The National Youth Brass Band of Scotland

Extract from the CD booklet.

“Malcolm Arnold’s gift for spontaneous melody pervades these discs, the first instalment of a collection, bringing together all of his works for brass, in original and transcription.

This group of works inhabit a period from mid- to late-career for Arnold, when despite his well-documented troubles, he was at the height of his powers. When he did sit down to work, his famed facility allowed a profusion of ideas to flow freely from his pen. His music became more and more succinct.

He had a special and effortless affinity for brass. Perhaps it is this familiarity which allows his deeply contrasted feelings of despair and exuberance to coexist within the same work, as in the coruscating performance of his Symphony heard on the first disc of this set.

A thread of fantasy ran through Arnold’s output from the Grand Fantasia of 1938 to the final Fantasy for Recorder and String Quartet in 1991. This volume of recordings is a tapestry interwoven with the fantasies for solo brass, played by the winners of the Malcolm Arnold Fantasy Competition, from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

There are periods of dark brooding melancholy in the Symphony, Quintet No.1 and Fantasy for Brass Band, emphasizing Arnold’s depth, but this serves only to boost the positivity of this collection of his music.”

• The first of a series of CD recordings which will collectively include all of Malcolm Arnold’s works for brass.
• Offering variety and diversity for engaging listening
• A legacy collection of significant repertoire for brass by Malcolm Arnold
• The culmination of innovative outreach projects by The Wallace Collection