Corea • Higdon • Warnaar – Brass Concertos

Our noted collection of recordings featuring brass instruments continues with this wonderful release from the Nashville Symphony Orchestra conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero. The programme boasts two significant world premiere recordings – Brad Warnaar’s Cornet Concerto and Jennifer Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto – topped off by jazz legend Chick Corea’s popular Trombone Concerto. Boasting a remarkable track record on the Naxos label, each new release of contemporary repertoire from this conductor and orchestra has become something of a special event.


Brass Concertos
COREA • HIGDON • WARNAAR

José Sibaja, Cornet
Joseph Alessi, Paul Jenkins, Derek W. Hawkes, Trombones
Steven Brown, Bass trombone • Gilbert Long, Tuba
Nashville Symphony • Giancarlo Guerrero

This album represents part of Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony’s mission to expand the contemporary American concerto repertoire, with each of these three works spotlighting a different facet of the relatively underexplored brass instrument family. Brad Warnaar’s Cornet Concerto draws on a rich heritage of 19th-century band music with wit and heartfelt homage, while Chick Corea’s Trombone Concerto, his final completed composition, fuses lyricism, jazz spontaneity, and orchestral drama. Jennifer Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto honours the spirit of this orchestral section through a majestic single-movement work of clarity and resonance. All of these pieces expand the expressive possibilities of the brass concerto in ways that are both surprising and deeply engaging.

Listen to an extract from Jennifer Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto
About the artists
More albums featuring Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony
8.559852
★★★★★
★★★★★
‘The playing of the Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero is simply stunning in all three works. This vividly recorded disc will be an essential purchase for anyone interested in contemporary orchestral composition.’
MusicWeb International
8.559798
★★★★★
★★★★
‘Ample compliments, yet again, to the Nashville Symphony and maestro Giancarlo Guerrero for stunning performances as well as their ongoing commitment to American contemporary music. This ensemble is becoming one of my favourite American symphony orchestras for these reasons.’
Audiophile Audition ★★★★
8.559823
HIGDON, J.:
All Things Majestic
Viola Concerto • Oboe Concerto

Díaz • Button
Nashville Symphony
Guerrero
‘This is just a marvellous disc … The Nashville Symphony … plays magnificently here, proving once again that it is truly an unheralded treasure among American orchestras; and, as usual, Giancarlo Guerrero shows himself to be a master interpreter of modern American music … A real winner!’
Fanfare
8.559740
‘All in all, a wonderful disc, and one I would passionately commend to anyone searching for a modern composer who is neither bamboozlingly obscure nor patronisingly accessible.’
MusicWeb International


View all Features »