Empire Brass - Class Brass: Orchestral Favorites Arranged for Brass (1989)

“We’re always looking for a new audience, people who, because of their love of a certain piece of music, will listen and be introduced to our brass medium. This recording is a great way of doing that.”—Sam Pilafian, Empire Brass

This, the great brass ensemble’s third recording for Telarc, features classical favorites specially arranged for brass. Included are excerpts from some of the world’s most popular ballets and operas—The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Carmen; familiar melodies from Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances and Copland’s variations on the beloved Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts; sonic blockbusters such as Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance No. 8 and “The Great Gate of Kiev,” the most famous musical “picture” from Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

This exciting recording will appeal to a wide and diverse audience. The familiarity and popularity of the selections offer something to “pops” audiences as well as to casual classical music listeners. Audiophiles will appreciate the wide range of dynamics and tone color captured by Telarc’s engineers, and brass aficionados recognize American brass playing as the most highly developed in the world. This recording reveals why the members of the Empire Brass are five of the very best instrumentalists in the country.