The American Brass Quintet is one of the most respected and high level performing brass ensembles
in the United States. They have a rich history of recording and commissioning new works for brass quintet.
Eric Ewazen has written numerous works for brass instruments and ensembles, in particular trumpet ensembles. That is where this post’s connection to the American Brass Quintet begins.
In 1999 Eric Ewazen with the American Brass Quintet released a CD titled Music for the Soloists of The American Brass Quintet and Friends. The first track on this CD is a piece called Fantasia for Seven Trumpets by Ewazen, performed by Ray Mase, David Krauss, Peter Bond, Robert Sullivan, Mark Gould, Kevin Finamore, and Chris Gekker.
Though clearly not unheard of, it is difficult to come across a trumpet ensemble piece that is performed at this high of a level. Trumpet ensembles primarily exist within university and conservatory settings, and therefore are performed mostly by student ensembles. That being said I think that this recording serves as a fantastic model of what trumpet ensembles could be. Seven of some of the best trumpet players in the country come together and bring this work by Ewazen to life.
I have never personally been a fan of the trumpet ensemble as an ensemble, but I think that performances like these can inspire composers, and performers to dig in more and innovate repertoire for this instrumentation.
As for the recording specifically: This group plays with such precision and energy that the listener gets drawn in immediately. Perhaps one of my favorite elements of the group is the pristine and coordinated articulations in the faster more rhythmic sections, and the way each soloist ‘floats’ over the group in the slower sections. Of course a group of this caliber can make anything sound fantastic, it is just a bonus in this case that it happens to be on a popular trumpet ensemble piece.
