Time to review a CD!

I've filed this disk under Dan Welcher's Brass Quintet, but the label has titled the disk "Premier!", performed by the American Brass Quintet (ABQ). They've recorded four works for this. In addition to the Welcher piece, it includes Gunther Schuller's Brass Quintet No. 2, David Sampson's Distant Voices, and Jan Bach's Triptych.

First, a comment or two about the ABQ. I've played in a few brass quintets myself, and I much prefer the standard instrumentation of two trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba. These guys don't have a tuba, they employ a very fine bass trombonist instead, John Rojak. But no matter how good he is, a bass trombone just doesn't make the sound a tuba does--and it greatly diminishes the sound of the group (a tuba is a big, warm sound and a bass 'bone can't fill that). The other note? My mother once mentioned that when we lived in Aspen, the ABQ used to rehearse next door to us during the summer music festival. I don't recall that at all!

How's the disk? None of the works here are sparkling, but the Sampson has some lovely sonorities, if we perhaps hear a lack of substantive development, leading the four movements (named for people who have inspired the composer) to drag a bit. But Mr. Schuller's quintet is the weak work here. Perhaps it's because he's a brass player by training, but he seems trapped by the history of the instruments and how they are used. Rather than imaginative use of their sounds, he uses the brass instruments in what seems to me like the most clichéd writing. Still, he's a skilled artist and the work is skillfully composed, thankfully showing little of his clumsy jazz interest from earlier in his career.

Jan Bach is a familiar name to brass players, and his Triptych has a Canzona to start, a Fuga to close and both outer movements are scintillating. They have a sense of forward motion and rich complexity in a modernist take on counterpoint. Frankly, it's one of the better works I've heard from Mr. Bach. Dan Welcher's work is also strong. I particularly enjoy the touches of mixing muted and un-muted instruments in some passages and his sinuous melodies are pleasing.

Given the uneven works, the ABQ is still able to play to their usual high standard. They are top-notch in all respects. As a group, these are all fairly modernist works, meaning that we get a lot of shifting moods with quickly changing textures and outbursts. Especially during the weaker works, this begins to feel a little tedious and directionless.

6 out of 10

(June 3, 2008 Note: I've made a correction to this review. A reader has pointed out that I got John Rojak's name wrong. My apologies!)

CDs listened to today:

• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Dan Welcher: Brass Quintet
• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way