Grainger, Percy - Transcriptions for Wind Band
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The eccentric Percy Grainger was well-known for his musical arrangements which ranged from works by other composers as well as arrangements of his own original and folk music settings. These arrangements form a body of work which is perhaps unique in musical history.
Most of the works on this CD are taken from a series Grainger named Chosen Gems for Winds. Grainger had a musical mind of unusual breadth and vision, with interests spanning the ages from mediaeval music to the latest twentieth century developments and had the vision to see this context of the wind orchestra setting. It is likely that enlisting in the American Army as a bandsman at the outbreak of World War I, cemented his interest in wind band music, along with an awareness of Stokowski’s Bach transcriptions.
In compiling his works for Chosen Gems he took works prior to Bach, the earliest performed here being the 13th Century Angelus ad Virginem. Five further pre-Bach compositions are also performed including music by Antonio de Cabezon; Alfonso Ferrabosco II and Josquin des Pres. He also included works by J.S Bach – whose music played a central role in Grainger’s musical life, including a tenor aria from the 1725 Cantata ‘Ich bin ein gutter hirt’ (BVW 85) and the chorale prelude O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sunde Grosstaken. Unlike Stokowski’s modern sounding Bach, Grainger manages to create a sound still very much of the original composer, but with expressive concept and colours, entirely Grainger’s. Complementing this early music, are several twentieth-century pieces by composers he particularly admired, including Fauré (a hero of Grainger’s), Goossens, Franck, Sandby and Liszt. The most ambitious and the longest arrangement is Grainger’s transcription of Chorale No.2 by Franck; one of Franck’s last compositions.
Performed by acknowledged leaders in the genre; the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra under Clark Rundell (who have previously recorded Grainger for wind orchestra on Chandos); “The Royal Northern Collegians show themselves to be in tune with Grainger’s quirky style” (Fanfare on CHAN 9549).