The title of this release by the Onyx Brass has two parts. Festmusik refers to the opening and longest work on the program, the Festmusik written by Richard Strauss for a brass corps of the city of Vienna in 1943. This is the only work on the album originally written for brass ensemble and the only one not receiving its world premiere. "Legacy" is not a general term but rather describes a set of letters from composers owned by a couple, identified as Hilde and Heinz, who fled Berlin in 1935; Heinz was the great-uncle of ...
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The title of this release by the Onyx Brass has two parts. Festmusik refers to the opening and longest work on the program, the Festmusik written by Richard Strauss for a brass corps of the city of Vienna in 1943. This is the only work on the album originally written for brass ensemble and the only one not receiving its world premiere. "Legacy" is not a general term but rather describes a set of letters from composers owned by a couple, identified as Hilde and Heinz, who fled Berlin in 1935; Heinz was the great-uncle of Onyx Brass tuba player David Gordon-Shute. The letters are from the composers recorded here: Strauss (in part, welcoming Germany's impending loss of World War II), Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Robert Franz. They're individually interesting, and some buyers will want the CD version for its booklet, which reproduces the actual letters (it's also available online). This device does not exactly unify a rather diverse program, but it's compelling, and it inspires some fresh arrangement...
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