Although it may look like a hodge-podge, this collection of marches offers plenty of variety and makes for a very pleasant program of continuous listening. Some of the items are familiar whether as originally written or in wind-band transcriptions, including Barber’s Commando March, Halvorson’s Entry of the Boyars, Grieg’s Funeral March for Rikard Nordraak, Grainger’s Children’s March, and Saint-Saëns’ two marches (the March Militaire Francaise and Orient et Occident). Among the lesser-known titles, Ives’ Overture and March “1776”, Bull’s Grand March, and Mendelssohn’s Trauer-Marsch are particularly noteworthy.
All receive lively, highly musical performances under conductor Bjorn Sagstad that fall lightly on the ear, and they are spectacularly well recorded in extremely natural SACD 5.1 surround-sound. The Kristiansand Blaseensemble boasts a mellow, liquid tone, particularly from its reed section, along with excellent intonation and a particularly clear feeling for rhythm. The Ives, for example, has amazing clarity and incisiveness, allowing the music to register joyfully without blaring. The result is a disc that band music collectors should seriously consider sampling. [6/26/2008]
