A Festival of Carols in Brass
is the very definition of a
Christmas
"classic" -- since it was first issued in 1967 it has never gone out of print, and the recording remains the number one choice for brass-styled
music played in shopping malls throughout the United States during the holiday season. This album by
the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble
contains 25
traditional
carols
that are arranged in a colorful but no-nonsense fashion. To vary the sound,
make use of differing instrumental combinations among the various players, even within a
carol
, in addition to sparing but tasteful application of mutes. As opposed to merely getting through a
without mistakes and to everyone's satisfaction,
take the time to arrive at a blend of sound and work together on trying to make it as beautiful as possible, and it shows.
CBS
' analog recording, though well nigh approaching the age of 40 years, is bright, spacious, clear, and not dated.
The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble
was a leaderless group drawn from the brass section of
the Philadelphia Orchestra
. During this time, conductor
Eugene Ormandy
had
extremely busy in the recording studios, waxing practically the entire major
orchestral
literature for
CBS Masterworks
. Once in a while
would get a chance to do something on its own, as long as
Ormandy
was aware of it and got a piece of the action. Ironically,
has outsold practically all of the regular
recordings made by
in the 1960s. For some reason,
Sony
has never seen fit to upgrade the cover on the compact disc release of
; it is still in the same stripped-down "longbox"-era type of package it has appeared in since the 1980s. It does not list the players who participated on this now historic recording. For the record, they are
Gilbert Johnson
and
Seymour Rosenfeld
, trumpets;
Mason Jones
, horn;
Henry Charles Smith
, trombone;
Dee Stewart
, euphonium; and
Abe Torchinsky
Peter Krill
, tubas. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis