This absolutely brilliant disc offers smashing performances of some of the greatest music ever written for concert band, as well as some marvelous rarities. The two masterpieces are Schoenberg’s brashly vivid, tonally reassuring Theme and Variations, and Florent Schmitt’s sexy, sultry, demented Dionysiaques (which sounds sort of like a cross between the sountrack to “Jaws” and the Bacchanale from “Samson and Dalilah”). This last will be familiar to lovers of the musically arcane who remember an old performance (currently on Calliope) by the band of the French National Guard, coupled with pieces by Berlioz, Fauré, and Koechlin. That performance is a lot heavier, slower, and squeakier than this high-powered, sleekly virtuoso one, and the two versions are so different from each other, and so excellent within their own stylistic parameters, that I’m happy to have both. Charles Cushing’s Angel Camp is an inventive set of variations on a hymn tune that is sung (quite ably) at the opening by the Choir of the College of William and Mary. Nicholas Maw’s American Games, a prize-winning composition no less, starts promisingly and then meanders along to an abrupt close. Still, it’s easy on the ear and contains brilliant moments. The real novelty, though, is the set of Greek Dances by Nikos Skalkottas in the composer’s own band arrangement. The tunes are terrific, and like all the performances on this disc, they are marvelously played and recorded. This isn’t just a great band music record, but a great record. Period.
