Naxos’ laudable project to record the complete Sousa for wind band should excite the interest of anyone who cares about this marvelous, comparatively neglected (at least by “serious” music lovers) medium. First, the good news: this first volume contains some delightful surprises, including the 18-minute-long suite Looking Upward, with its lovely second movement titled “Beneath the Southern Cross”. There’s also a charming Humoresque of Gershwin’s “Swanee”, the Colonial Dames Waltz (a welcome detour for this composer into three-quarter time), and the (unintentionally?) irreverent Imperial Edward March composed for the then king of England and containing references to “God Save the King” in unusual places. Works such as Hands Across the Sea, Manhattan Beach, and The Invincible Eagle will be familiar from other Sousa collections, but it’s always a pleasure to discover the lesser-known works, like Kansas Wildcats, Foshay Tower, or Daughters of Texas. In sum, the program has been skillfully arranged to display Sousa’s range as a composer of more than just marches.
Now the bad news: the performances, while never poor, certainly aren’t top notch. Keith Brion is a recognized Sousa expert, but the results he obtains from the Royal Artillery Band simply don’t stand up to the efforts of, say, Frederick Fennell with any number of ensembles, or the Dallas Wind Symphony on Reference Recordings. Part of the problem stems from the engineering, which is both dry in the bass and somehow manages to capture a good bit of mechanical valve noise from the instruments themselves, while paradoxically suggesting a comparatively distant perspective. But in the final analysis, a more vivid reed section and crisper percussion (cymbals with less swoosh and tighter, more prominent rhythm from the drums) would have brought out the music’s color and vitality to better effect. This disc earns a guarded recommendation for the interest of the repertoire, along with the sincere hope that both sonics and performance values improve with future issues.
