The brass septet
Septura
has put brass ensemble music on the charts at a level not seen for some years, and this version of
Tchaikovsky
's
The Nutcracker, Op. 71
, offers an ideal illustration as to why. It's not just the virtuosity of the group, although that's impressive enough. The septet format allows for a striking variety of color as compared with a brass quintet, and the arrangers, trombonist
Matthew Knight
and trumpeter
Simon Cox
, put the instrumentalists through considerable challenges in their renderings of the interior lines. The epic battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King will give you a taste, and the "Dance of the Reed Flutes" will make you forget that you're not listening to flutes of any kind. If one innovative aspect were not enough, however,
also presents
The Nutcracker
with text narration, written by
Knight
and adapted directly from the
Alexandre Dumas
' treatment of
E.T.A. Hoffmann
's original short story.
takes short snatches of text, avoiding the problems that might have come with
and
Petipa
's alterations to the story, and produces an action-packed narrative that, if the version were to spread, just might catch the attention of the chorines who dutifully trudge through
every year. A top Christmas release of 2019. ~ James Manheim