Adam Frey is an expert euphonium player, and Taking Flight is his second outing for MSR Classics. "Expert" is certainly the operative word; Frey can get from the bottom to the top of the instrument lickety split. Endless streams of fast notes with no breath? No problem. In lyric material found on Taking Flight, such as the transcription of "Che gelida manina" from Puccini's La bohème, Frey's tone is so fluid and pristine he almost sounds like he is playing a saxophone. The euphonium-centered new work here is the Concerto ...
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Adam Frey is an expert euphonium player, and Taking Flight is his second outing for MSR Classics. "Expert" is certainly the operative word; Frey can get from the bottom to the top of the instrument lickety split. Endless streams of fast notes with no breath? No problem. In lyric material found on Taking Flight, such as the transcription of "Che gelida manina" from Puccini's La bohème, Frey's tone is so fluid and pristine he almost sounds like he is playing a saxophone. The euphonium-centered new work here is the Concerto for Euphonium: Swimming the Mountain by Allen Feinstein, the director of Northeastern University's wind ensemble; it won the 2006 Harvey Phillips prize for excellence awarded by the International Tuba and Euphonium Society. Concerto for Euphonium: Swimming the Mountain is certainly pleasant; the tutti sections are couched in a "revitalized Big American style," though there remains ample time in the concerto for the euphonium -- and Frey -- to show off the goods.Apart from the concerto,...
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