I've been listening all morning. I really want to love the Vaughan Williams, I love the original version and I'm all for the idea, I really am. And the performance is spectacular. But I just can't seem to wrap my ear around the new key and the brightness of the resulting sound. Does anyone else have that problem? I feel like the piece in the original key is actually not terribly suited for euphonium already, with a few octave displacements.
Am I just being a curmudgeon? Like I said, I really want to like this.
Just got my copy of this CD and started listening. So far it sounds great (love David's playing of the cadenza in mv 1 of the RVW).
You can now purchase / download the mp3 files from the link shared earlier.
Rick Floyd
Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
YEP-641S (recently sold)
Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank
"Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
Chorale and Shaker Dance (John Zdechlik)
Regarding rumhud's observations, I had never listened to the Vaughan Williams tuba concerto before listening to this version for euphonium. To my uninformed and unbiased ear, I thought it sounded good in this new key. After giving this version a few good listens, I did some back and forth listening between recordings of the original tuba version and the euphonium version, and to me they are both enjoyable.
There are some elements of solo euphonium repertoire that I don't always love, and there are some moments in these recording that fall into that category for me, but in general I have really enjoyed that album. I love the boldness of the opening movement of the Gregson concerto, and I think the the cadenza of the Mealor concerto sounds really cool and unique.
Anyways those are some of the highlights for me, I'm interested to hear what others think.
Having now listened to the entire CD I have to say my favorite is David Child's performance of Paul Mealor's Euphonium Concerto (2017). Some movements are very melodic and others unbelievably challenging. All exquisitely played! What a great piece for euphonium! If you haven't purchase this CD I urge you to consider doing so. It's excellent!
You can get a sample of this new concerto here:
World Premier of Paul Mealor's euphonium concerto
CD quality is of course better
...
Rick Floyd
Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
YEP-641S (recently sold)
Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank
"Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
Chorale and Shaker Dance (John Zdechlik)