Here is something of an avant-garde feast for those who enjoy brass sonorities but like also to be stretched by new music. The concert opens with Britten's inspired and ingenious Fanfare for St Edmundsbury, where the three participants play three different melodic lines in turn and then fit them ingeniously together later, even though they are in different keys. The result is ear-tickling, and a masterpiece, as in a different way is the Russian Funeral, using Russian folk material. Elliott Carter's Quintet is altogether thornier, very fragmented, but with enough immediate interest to encourage the listener to persevere. Tippett's Sonata for four horns, on the other hand, is not a bit 'difficult', though it has an incredible number of notes! The especially prolix second movement Allegro giocoso is the most exciting, while the Lento cantabile tranquillo is haunting. The Festal brass with Blues is even more approachable and the Blues (which quotes directly from the Third Symphony) has immediate melodic appeal.
Lutoslawski's brief Overture is wittily succinct, and the only real disappointment here is the arrangement of the Britten Simple Symphony. The ''Playful pizzicato'' comes off best (though it is no match for the sound of plucked strings—one remembers the composer's own Decca recording resounding sonorously in the The Maltings, Snape) and the ''Frolicsome finale'' is quite effective too. However, the slow movement is coarsened and overall such a transcription is out of place on a disc of this kind. Otherwise this is an enterprising programme, offering splendid bravura playing thoughout (the horns in the Tippett piece play with phenomenal ease) and a strong emotional response. The well-balanced, realistic recording made in Abbey Road No. 1 Studio cannot be faulted.'