It may have been surprising to see this release by a newish U.S. ensemble show up on British classical best-seller charts in the summer of 2023. Several factors may have contributed, one being the marketing muscle of the
PentaTone Classics
label and another being that label's engineering staff getting splendid results from a live 2021 concert at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall. A third factor might be the unusual large brass ensemble format: there are 31 players, allowing an unusually large palette of sounds and textures. This is especially effective in the work that takes up the whole second CD and second part of the program,
The Ring
, a condensation of
Wagner
's entire
Ring cycle
by
Timothy Higgins
. This hits many of the familiar pieces from those four operas, which of course, contain a great deal of writing for brass in the first place. There are other unfamiliar and intriguing pieces: a rare fanfare by
Richard Strauss
, the
title work
Jonathan Bingham
, which is palindromic in several respects, and a pleasing, lightly Latin-accented
Brass Fantasy
of
Arturo Sandoval
. The
National Brass Ensemble
is not a standing group but one drawn from top players in various U.S. orchestras (the
San Francisco Symphony
has the largest group); conductor
Eun Sun Kim
's direction is crisp, and the virtuosity of several of the players is notable although the cohesion of a well-drilled chamber group is impossible. There have been several other instrumental "summaries" of the
Ring
, but this one is both unusual and engaging. A must for brass fans. ~ James Manheim