Though most music is best heard live, it is especially true in the case of brass quintets. While in a concert hall a group might really raise the roof, on disc they’re more likely to sound a little shallow, never quite approximating what you’d hear in a hall no matter how closely or carefully recorded (and this disc is both). That said, the Wallace Collection remains one of the world’s finest brass ensembles, playing with the energy and packing the wallop that only brass instruments can. On this disc the group takes on all manner of 20th century music with fierce commitment and mixed results that stem not from the technical quality of the playing but from the variable merit of the works themselves.
The musical selections show the group’s wide range of repertoire interest, from the insistent (and slightly insipid) major-key squeaks of Steve Martland’s Full Fathom Five to the hard-edged atonal screams of Iannis Xenakis’ shapeless Khal Perr. The title track, Hammered Brass, is Robert Crawford’s sleek musical exploration of the abstract notion of various metals, cast in seven short, focused movements, and Petr Eben’s Quintet (Variazioni sul’uno Corale) is a sweet, dashing little set of bagatelle-like tonal variations on a 15th-century chorale theme. These last two are brief yet continually interesting pieces, and both composers make imaginative, engaging use of the instrumental forces. The disc’s highlight is Luciano Berio’s incisive, biting, all-too-short piece, Call, a good thing in a small package.
